USFS fields questions on forest plan

By BRENT SHRUM Western News Reporter

Forest Service officials outlined the draft of a plan intended to guide management decisions on the Kootenai National Forest for the next 15 years during a public meeting Thursday evening in Libby.

The meeting was the fourth and final session in a series that included Troy, Yaak and Eureka. Public comments on the proposed forest plan will be taken through Aug. 10, and a 30-day objection period aimed at staving off litigation will follow the issuance of a final plan.

Forest planner Kirsten Kaiser explained that the plan is a strategic document intended to provide a framework for forest-wide objectives. The plan maps out the suitability of particular areas of the forest for various uses and delineates unique special interest and research areas. Under the proposed plan, 64 percent of the Kootenai would be managed as general forest, 19 percent as backcountry, 11 percent for "wilderness values," and 6 percent under special designations.

Major conclusions of the plan include:

* Identification of areas suitable for motorized and non-motorized use.

* Setting a policy of a return to historic distribution of vegetative species, for example decreasing the amount of Douglas fir on the forest while increasing the amount of white pine.

* Managing vegetation to meet wildlife habitat needs.

* Recognizing the need for healthy watersheds and aquatic species.

* Reducing fire fuels in the wildland-urban interface.

* Setting annual timber harvest targets of 56 to 66 million board feet.

Outgoing forest supervisor Bob Castaneda, whose last day of work before retirement was Friday, said he expects some changes in the plan — based in part on public comment — before final adoption. The plan has already been influenced by a series of public meetings in seven individual geographic areas on the forest, he said.

About two dozen people attended Thursday's meeting. In a question-and-answer period following a review of the plan by Kaiser and Castaneda, Lincoln County Commissioner Rita Windom asked how many acres are targeted for timber harvest. Kaiser said that 72 percent of the forest is considered "generally suitable" for timber harvest. That figure excludes the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness and the Ten Lakes study area, she noted.

Of the area suitable for timber harvest, about half — 37 percent of the entire forest — is considered suitable for timber production, Kaiser continued. That excludes areas such as riparian lands and grizzly bear core habitat where timber could be harvested as a tool for habitat or fuels reduction purposes but where logging could not be conducted on a scheduled rotation basis, she explained.

State Rep. Ralph Heinert said he has heard that a timber harvest of 200 to 400 million board feet would be sustainable on the Kootenai. He asked why the targeted cut is only 56 to 66 million board feet "if in fact that is a real number."

The targeted cut is based on practical factors such as budget constraints and legal regulations, Kaiser said.

"That's what we feel as being realistic," she said.

Logger Paul Tisher asked Kaiser for annual mortality figures. Kaiser said she didn't have a figure but that an analyst is working on the issue.

"All I know is we're growing a lot more than we're cutting," she said.

The last forest plan, adopted in 1987, initially set annual harvest targets of 200 million board feet, but that was reduced to 150 million board feet after litigation, Castaneda said. The actual cuts have been much lower in recent years — more in line with the targets in the proposed plan, Castaneda noted.

"Over time we've unofficially adjusted that volume, but we've never sat down and calculated it and gone through a forest plan revision process," he said.

Donna O'Neil asked how the Forest Service will guarantee that it will be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to recreation. Recreation and access issues will be a focus of a travel plan scheduled to be drafted following the adoption of the forest plan, Castaneda said. The travel plan is slated for adoption in 2009 and will be the subject of a public process similar to the drawing up of the forest plan, he said.

"The future demand for recreation is going to come," Castaneda said. "There's no doubt about it."

Robyn King of the Yaak Valley Forest Council pointed out that the removal of recommended wilderness in the Scotchman Peaks and Roderick Mountain areas did not reflect the intent of the groups working with the Forest Service in those geographic areas. Instead of wilderness, a "wildland" designation is proposed by the Forest Service.

Windom spoke in favor of the removal of the recommended wilderness designation.

"By and large, I believe our constituents don't want any more wilderness," she said. "They don't want recommended wilderness; they don't want de facto wilderness. It's a stretch for most of them to accept backcountry."

Joel Chandler said he attended every meeting for the Libby geographic area and never heard anything about a proposal in the forest plan to limit motorized access in the Swede-McMillan area because of concerns about winter range for big game.

"The bottom line is if it didn't come from you, it came from a wildlife biologist as a desired condition for that area," Kaiser said.

Chandler asked if road closures might result. District ranger Malcolm Edwards said the forest plan doesn't make any specific recommendations on road closures, but those issues will be taken up during the travel plan process.