5,400 acre timber project planned near Bob Marshall
The machine that retrieves the chopped timber from the woods is seen next to a slash pile on a logging landing on March 9, 2023. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)
A proposed timber project on about 5,400 acres in the Swan Valley is under review by the Flathead National Forest.
The Rumbling Owl Fuels Reduction Project would include timber harvest and prescribed fire with the intent of reducing wildfires in the so-called wildland-urban interface. The project is southeast of Condon between Montana 83 and the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
According to the scoping notice, the area includes many private and Forest Service structures, and is important to the outdoor tourism economy. A wildfire in the area would have “devastating consequences,” according to the notice. The proposed harvest and prescribed fire would ultimately help protect those assets, the notice states.
Work would include 4,441 acres of commercial tree harvest and 946 acres of pre-commercial thinning. Gravel pit restoration would affect 14 acres. About 1,076 acres of prescribed burns would occur within the project area.
Logging equipment like harvesters, skidders, feller-butchers, dozers and masticators would be used for the harvest work.
About 4 miles of temporary roads are planned, some of which would be built on existing road templates. The roads would not be open to the public.
Work would begin spring 2024, with the commercial harvest taking up to five years to finish. Other project activities could take up to 10 years and are funding dependent.
A public meeting and field trip to the project area is set for Nov. 29 from 2-4 p.m. at the Swan Valley Community Hall in Condon.
Public comments are being accepted through Dec. 13.