East-side reservoir timber goes to bid

The Flathead National Forest is accepting bids for a timber sale on the east side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir between Emery Bay and Riverside Bay and just east of Kelly Island.

The Firefighter Timber Sale calls for harvesting 10,688 tons of lodgepole pine sawtimber, 6,593 tons of western larch sawtimber and 11,522 tons of non-sawtimber on 396 acres between the East-Side Reservoir Road and the reservoir.

The sale one more part of the Firefighter Project, which received a final decision notice in August 2009. Termination date for the timber sale is the end of October 2016. The timber sale also calls for 21 miles of road improvements to be completed by the end of September 2015.

According to Flathead Forest planner Michelle Draggoo, the purposes of the Firefighter Project include:

• Maintaining sufficient closed canopied forests for future suitable elk winter/summer range.

• Improving grizzly bear security by reducing motorized access.

• Increasing forest structural and species diversity to favor early successional species such as western larch, Douglas fir and western white pine.

• Reducing fuel loading by removing trees, reducing slash, prescribed fire and biomass removal.

• Maintaining and enhancing growth of the planted Douglas fir in the genetic test tree plantation.

Some parts of the Firefighter Project have been implemented, Draggoo said, including reducing motorized access by road closures and decommissioning, and enhancing growth in the test tree plantation by the sapling thinning.

“The other purposes identified above would be achieved through the timber sale,” she said. “The timber sale has been delayed because there were other higher timber sale priorities on the Flathead National Forest until now.”