Logging in North Fork headwaters raises concerns

A large timber harvest in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead River has raised concerns with biologists in Montana.

University of Montana researcher Ric Hauer said thousands of acres of forest land have been logged by Tembec in McEvoy Creek in the Canadian Flathead. The area was previously unroaded, and McEvoy Creek is the “premier spawning stream in the entire Flathead,” he said.

Tembec gave him a tour of their operation as they logged and followed best management practices, he said, but he openly questioned whether that would sufficiently protect the area, based on the size and scale of the logging. He said the logging started in 2010 and is now completed.

Hauer’s concern is about fine sediments washing off new roads into McEvoy Creek. Fine sediments clog trout spawning beds, suffocating the newly-laid eggs and embryos.

The creek is located far up the headwaters of the North Fork, just upstream from Foisey Creek, where the Cline Mining Co. once proposed operating an open-pit coal mine.

The British Columbia provincial government has banned mining in the Canadian Flathead, but the area is still logged, sometimes heavily. Past timber operations have logged right down to the banks of the river, Hauer said.

Ryland Nelson of the environmental group, Wildsight in British Columbia, said the logging was conducted under Forest Stewardship Council Certification, which is supposed to be a higher standard for logging practice, but, “It’s still very much industrial logging.” The roads that were built were closed to motorized use, but they still exist, he said.

Nelson said Tembec’s holdings in the region have since been sold to Canfor, which is harvesting timber in the lower reaches of the North Fork of the Flathead near Howell and Cabin Creeks. He said that logging may actually have benefits, as it’s designed to mimic what might occur after wildfire.

Wildsight has proposed that the entire region be managed as a wildlife management area, which wouldn’t preclude logging but would place an emphasis on wildlife. He said there also are concerns about rock quarries in the drainage — the mining ban does not ban quarries.

Of even greater concern is the Elk River valley, which flows into Lake Koocanusa. Upwards of five new coal mines are proposed in the drainage. In addition, Tembec sold about 123,000 acres of private land it held to Jemi Fibre Corp., which has plans to log about 211 million board feet of timber a year for the next 10 years from the property.

“It’s the most intense industrial logging I’ve ever seen,” Nelson said.