The popular hiking, biking and cross-country skiing spot is bustling on this midweek early morn with people coming and going. A pair of fluorescent orange T-shirt-clad, shorthaired pointers scamper about in anticipation of their turn to head up the hill. None of the steady stream of skiers, hikers and dog walkers seems to pay the racket any notice.
By now, nearly everyone who's a fan of this favorite Missoula backyard haunt knows about the ongoing efforts to thin the nearby forest. They've also figured out that the logging effort doesn't mean an end to their recreational plans.
Two weeks ago, after the ground froze solid, crews from Missoula's Johnson Bros. Contracting moved into the area just across the road from Crazy Canyon to start thinning the last 80 acres of a 1,000-acre contract. Over the past few years, loggers have thinned national forest lands in both Pattee Canyon and Blue Mountain recreation areas.
As the equipment rolled in, Ronck gathered up a pair of maps and an orange crayon. He drew an outline around the area where the work will occur and posted the maps at popular trailheads.
The signs let people know that logging is under way and where it's occurring. Most importantly, it reminds them to be aware.
“We ask them to stay at least one football field length away from the work area. We want them to stop, look, listen and yield,” he said. “People are paying attention. They've really co-existed much better than we thought they would.”
Hopes are the logging portion of the fuels reduction project at Pattee Canyon will wrap up this winter. Cleanup work will probably continue through a portion of the summer.
This winter, cross-country skiers looking for freshly groomed tracks will need to look elsewhere. The Missoula Nordic Ski Club won't be grooming trails in the Pattee Canyon area this winter.
Instead, the club will focus its efforts at other popular cross-country ski areas like the Rattlesnake Recreation Area and Lubrecht Experimental Forest.
“The ski club has been really cooperative in working with us,” said Joe Kipphut, a recreation forester on the Lolo National Forest. “When the work here is completed, it should be a really nice place to ski. The cold north facing slopes will really hold the snow.”
This isn't your grandfather's logging project, however.
The Forest Service recognized from the start that recreation is the highest and best use of the area. As a result, the agency required the contractor to take additional steps to ensure the area remains attractive.
“We've gone the extra mile to clean up slash and other material that would typically have been left behind or burned on the site,” said Steve Clark, a timber management officer with the Lolo National Forest. “A lot of material like bark, needles and twigs, has been ground into hog fuel, which will be burned in Stone Container's co-gen boiler.”
So far, the public's response to the overall thinning project at the popular recreation site has been positive.
The project gives the public a chance to see for themselves what a fuel reduction project in the urban interface looks like, said Missoula District Ranger Maggie Pittman.
“People can see firsthand the benefits a project like this can have,” she said. “They get to see the whole variety of products it provides for the local mill, including pulp, hog fuel and saw logs.
“Once a season goes by, they also get to see vegetation species appear that haven't been there for 30 or 40 years. They tell us they see small mammals they'd never seen before.”
Eventually, Pittman said the agency will try to reintroduce fire back to the landscape.
“We realize that our window of opportunity will be pretty slim here in the Missoula air shed,” she said. “We don't know for sure that we'll even be able to do that, but wouldn't it be great to bring fire back to this fire-dependent Ponderosa Pine community?
“Right now, it's just such a pleasure to be able to walk through this open forest and see those big old yellow pines.”
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)