Pine beetles, Western larch losses a concern
Noble Excavating is seen stacking freshly felled timber along a stretch of Pipe Creek Road in early April. Zach Schad, a company superintendent, said the project includes flattening and widening the roadway's shoulders, removing trees as necessary. Additional shoulder work is set to start next week along Pipe Creek, according to the Montana Department of Transportation. (Paul Sievers/The Western News)
Atop unusual losses this year of Western larch, pine beetles are drawing down Ponderosa stands in a swath of forest lying north of the Kootenai River.
During a recent update to the Lincoln County Commission, county Forester Jennifer Nelson said leftover pine debris apparent in the area likely helped boost the prolific beetles.
Nelson said infestations appear now to be picking up near the Ponderosa Heights area northeast of Libby, and then generally westward toward Quartz Creek.
“I think some of it is that people are not aware of the management activities that are occurring,” Nelson told the commission last week, “and they’re leaving pine slash, pine firewood [and] pine logs.”
She said beetle activity lessens as the forest transitions into mixed tree species.
Nelson said, meanwhile, that unusual Western larch die-offs have so far proved mysterious but remain spotty.
In other forestry business, collaborative wildland fire mitigation work at J. Neils Memorial Park was expected to finish last week, Nelson said.
She said Flathead Electric Cooperative workers cleared portions of power line right-of-way, with the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation working to remove area wildland fire fuels for a third year running.
DNRC also removed hazard trees and beetle-killed pine, she said.
At the county landfill in Libby, Nelson said, contracted timber work and resulting sales should deliver to the county an estimated $20,000, after logging costs.
Regionally, the Natural Resources Conservation Service is now working with landowners on cross-boundary wildfire mitigation work funded by the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership.
The partnership earlier this year approved nearly $1.3 million in current federal fiscal year funding for the Libby Surround Stewardship.
In Lincoln County and the Kootenai National Forest, the funding will be used specifically to target wildfire fuels within about 4,600 acres surrounding Libby.
It’s part of a greater initiative encompassing more than a quarter million acres of regional forest.
Nelson also noted to the commission an upcoming showing of the multimedia film “Era of Megafires” by North 40 Productions on April 14 at the Dome Theater in Libby.
The free showing is being offered collaboratively by the Kootenai Climate Group, the Society of American Foresters, the Lincoln County Fire Safe Council and Fire Adapted Kootenai.