Forest releases Robert, Wedge final salvage plan
Hungry Horse News
The Forest Service will salvage a fraction of the land burned in the Robert and Wedge fires, according to an environmental impact statement released last week.
The plan calls for salvaging about 1,937 acres of timber from the Robert Fire, which should yield about 11.3 million board feet of timber.
On the Wedge Canyon fire, the plan is to salvage about 2,400 acres of timber for an estimated 15.5 million board feet of timber.
To put that in perspective, the Stoltze Land and Lumber mill here in Columbia Falls uses about 30 million board feet of timber a year.
The Robert Fire burned about 13,100 acres of Forest Service land in the Canyon Creek and McGinnis Creek areas of the North Fork before going into Glacier National Park.
The Wedge Canyon Fire burned about 21,526 acres of Forest Service land from beyond Hornet Lookout to Trail Creek. It, too, went into Glacier National Park.
All told, the Wedge Canyon fire burned 54,404 acres and the Robert Fire burned 52,874 acres in the historic fire season of 2003.
The plan calls for a mix of helicopter logging and ground logging. About 233 acres in the Robert Fire requires winter logging; 865 acres in the Wedge.
The project would also include making about 15 miles of temporary roads and would decommission 15 miles of roads within the Robert Fire and 7 miles of roads in the Wedge.
More roads will see seasonal closures as well.
The plan also calls for re-planting 495 acres on the Robert Fire and 1,657 acres on the Wedge, with a variety of species, including some white bark pine.
The plan was developed after a marathon set of meetings in January where public stakeholders hashed out differences and gave their input.
Some said the process worked, while others claimed it did not. Whatever the case, the timber harvest will go on.
The project has been granted an exemption from stay, meaning that the timber sale contracts can be let while the project is appealed.
Hungry Horse District Ranger Jimmy DeHerrera said he didn't think the public meeting process would influence anyone when it comes to appealing the project.