Kootenai Forest officials accepting comment on forestry project

The Kootenai National Forest, Rexford and Fortine Range Districts are accepting public comments on a proposed 3,000-acre forest project near Eureka in the Glen Lake, Sinclair Creek and Ksanka foothills areas.

The Glen Sinclair Fuels Reduction Project would include vegetation and prescribed fire treatments to reduce the risk and extent of catastrophic wildfires to the communities, forests and infrastructure within the wildland urban interface of Lincoln County, northeast of U.S. 93 and near the community of Eureka. 

Comments will help inform project development during the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. The agency is asking that comments be received by March 6.

According to a press release from the Forest Service, it hopes to create conditions that allow for safe and effective wildfire management, lower the risk of epidemic levels of insect and disease, and provide a sustainable flow of forest products. 

The project area is within the Kootenai Complex, one of the initial 10 priority landscapes identified nationally for investment in support of the Confronting the Wildfire Crisis Strategy. It has also been identified as a priority area for restoration in the Montana Forest Action Plan (Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation 2020) and for hazardous fuels reduction in the Lincoln County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (Lincoln County 2023).

The project is anticipated to complete the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review as a categorical exclusion, specifically, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, Section 605 Wildfire Resilience Categorical Exclusion. Public comment is available before the Forest Service makes a decision on the project.

According to Rexford and Fortine District Ranger Seth Carbonari, the proposal includes thinning harvests (improvement cut, commercial thin and thin from below), regeneration harvests (shelterwood with reserves and seed tree with reserves) and mosaic harvests. 

According to Evergreen Foundation's Jim Petersen, mosaic harvests are meant to mimic random disturbance patterns, such as wind, fire, insects or diseases. 

"It's a way of maintaining species, age-class and structural diversity while opening a forest to sunlight needed for new seedlings and other plants - habitat for wildlife and birds," Petersen said.

These treatments would require development of about 3.2 miles of temporary roads and repair and maintenance of Forest Service Road haul routes.

"As appropriate other fuel reduction treatments may be applied within the areas designated for harvest," Carbonari wrote. "These include whole tree yarding of trees during harvest, cutting of additional small diameter trees to reduce ladder fuels, lop and scatter, excavator or hand piling, prescribed burning, chipping, or mastication (mulching). 

"In some situations, more than one treatment type may be used. We would also create fuel breaks that extend 200 feet from emergency access roads or private property in some areas. These treatments could include thin from below, removal of small diameter trees to reduce stocking levels, excavator or hand-piling of slash, chipping or mastication and prescribed burning.

Carbonari also wrote that he believes, "at this time, I believe the project falls into a category that can be excluded from an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement. Specifically, Section 605 of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, Wildfire Resilience Categorical Exclusion. Activities carried out under this categorical exclusion may not exceed 3,000 acres and should promote stands that are resilient to insects and disease, reduce the risk or extent of, or increase the resilience to wildfire."

The full proposal with activity descriptions and maps is available online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=65290.

An interactive Storymap is available at: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/dcf27b80300d4fcfa4d19d0e3e9ef64a

An open house will be available to the public to meet with resource specialists and share thoughts and concerns at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. at the Glacier Bank Community Room, 222 Dewey Avenue, Eureka.

For more information, please contact the Eureka Ranger Station at 949 Highway 93 N, Eureka, or call 406-296-2536.

Comments received in response to this letter, including the names and addresses of those who comment, will be considered part of the public record for this project and will be available for public inspection. If you cite literature in your comments, please provide us with a complete bibliography and a copy of the reference materials. The following options are available for submitting comments:

Electronic comments must be submitted by visiting the project webpage: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=65290 and under the Get Connected tab, click on the Comment/Object on Project button on the right side of the page.

Hardcopy comments can be mailed, hand-delivered, or faxed as follows: Eureka Ranger Station Attn: Seth Carbonari, District Ranger 949 U.S. 93 North, Eureka, MT 59917. The fax number is 406- 296-7188. Please write Glen Sinclair Project Comments on the cover page.

Another option for making comments is the GovDelivery system.

The Kootenai National Forest has decided to utilize GovDelivery, an electronic messaging program that allows us to provide better communication with interested members of the public. This new program allows you the ability to manage your subscription to Forest Service project electronic mailing lists and access immediate electronic information to project documents.

There are two ways to take advantage of electronic delivery.

1. People may subscribe by visiting the GovDelivery sign up page at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/projects/kootenai/landmanagement/projects. Enter an email address and click the submit button.

a. After signing up, click on the “Add Subscriptions” tab to select your areas of interest to ensure you are kept up to date on upcoming projects.

2. You may visit the project specific page https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=65290 and in the Get Connected section on the right hand of the page, click on the “Subscribe to Email Updates.” Enter your email address and click submit. This method will not give you the option to add subscriptions to other areas of interest on the Forest.

Electronic delivery provides subscribers immediate access to downloadable project documents that are then easy to share with staff or interested colleagues. Electronic delivery will also reduce the number of unwanted letters and extra copies of large documents.

Future project information will be electronic delivery and people should not expect to see any updates by postal mail. However, for those who wish to remain a postal subscriber, please resubmit your postal information by sending a letter to Moira McKelvey, Kootenai National Forest GovDelivery, 949 US Highway 93 North, Eureka, MT 59917 asking to continue to receive information by postal mail.