Paying tribute to Lincoln County's past
Gene Yahvah, right, sits by a photo of fellow forester Mel Parker at a tree cutting gathering at Parker’s residence, April 9 in Libby. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
Logger Gene Decker prepares to cut down a ponderosa pine. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
Gene Decker measures a ponderosa pine he is about to cut down at a tree cutting gathering, April 9 in Libby. Local artist Ron Adamson will carve the 12-foot stump into a forester overlooking the former mill site, in honor of Mel Parker, Mark Schoknecht and other foresters. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
Gene Decker prepares to chainsaw down a ponderosa pine at a tree cutting gathering, April 9 in Libby. Local artist Ron Adamson will carve the 12-foot stump into a forester overlooking the former mill site, in honor of Mel Parker, Mark Schoknecht and other foresters. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
Gene Decker saws through a dead ponderosa pine, April 9 at a tree cutting gathering in Libby. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
Gene Decker looks for the bugs which killed the ponderosa pine tree, April 9 in Libby. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
The bark of the now chopped down ponderosa pine. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
When a group of ponderosa pines on her property died a few months after the EPA did a cleanup around the trees’ roots, Lerah Parker decided that she wanted to at least have the huge trunks of the trees live on as a different kind of tribute to Lincoln County’s history.
The property overlooking Highway 37 and the Kootenai River is where Parker lived with her husband Mel before he passed away about two years ago.
Prior to that, the residence belonged to Mark Schoknecht — who worked 44 years at the J. Niels Lumber Company before retiring in 1974.
In the 1990s, several of the ponderosa pines that have stood on that perch for over 100 years were lost to a storm.
Parker said she believes the roots of the trees being left uncovered last summer while workers from the EPA were on vacation over July 4th is what ultimately led to the death of the trees about three months later.
Referencing the rain the day the final of the dead trees — all towering over 100 feet — was cut down, Parker said that her daughter had commented the rain was “tears from heaven.”
But from the loss, local artist Ron Adamson is going to create a new tribute to the area’s logging history.
In a 12-foot stump left after the final tree was cut down, Adamson is going to carve a forester.
“We’re going to have a forester carved in honor of forestry in Montana, Mark Schoknecht, and my husband, Mel Parker,” Parker said.
Parker said she envisions the statue looking out across the river to the former mill site.