The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is removing trees that have fallen victim to bark beetles, as the increase in dead trees has greatly increased the danger of large wildfires.
Dick Fichtler, a recreation planner for the BLM, said forest entomologists warned that the beetles were at an epidemic level. Something had to be done.
That was before the beetles showed up.
Typically, bark beetles make one flight a year to jump to a new host. This year, however, they made two jumps, infecting twice as many trees.
“So really what the bark beetle did was create a situation where our fuel loading dramatically increased. The dead and dying out there now is just humbling to behold,” Fichtler said.
The BLM contracted with Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co. of Seeley Lake to remove up to 60 percent of the standing trees in the 320-plus-acre area. The work started 10 days ago, and will be at its height this week.
In addition to reducing the fuel hazard, the BLM plans to maintain wildlife habitat while increasing recreational amenities.
To preserve the site, there will be no logging when the ground is wet, the loggers know exactly which trees to remove and not one historic artifact will be disturbed, Fichtler said.
Removing large dead trees near the 100-year-old buildings is no easy task. The BLM used an archaeological inventory completed over the past 10 years to brief a crew of hand-picked loggers on how to avoid sensitive cultural areas.
The sale of the removed logs will pay for all but a few costs of the project, Fichtler said.
Every part of every dead tree removed from the area will be utilized: The large stems will be milled into lumber, the smaller stems will be used as poles, the chips will be made into paper, and all the “dirty” material - sawdust, bark, limbs - will be burned in the kilns where green lumber is dried and cured.
“Right down to the sawdust,” said Fichtler, “we're getting tremendous utilization out of this project.”
Pyramid Mountain's contract also includes building several trails in the area. The trails will be built with an enzyme that reacts with soil to produce a hard, stable surface that is impermeable to water and needs no maintenance, said Fichtler.
Next year, the BLM will install interpretive signs along the trail, telling the history of the ghost town. All the trails will be handicapped-accessible.
Removing the trees also will create clearings and promote the diversification and growth of animal populations, Fichtler said.
The BLM's work plan leaves some of the low shrubs and fallen logs snowshoe hares depend on for shelter. The hare is a favorite food source of the Canada lynx, and keeping hares in the area will keep the at-risk lynx there as well. The area also is home to wolves, grizzly and black bears, mountain lions, deer and elk.
Besides the Bureau of Land Management, other participants in the Ghost Town Fire Fuel Hazard Reduction project are the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, the Garnet Preservation Association and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Will Grant is a journalism student at the University of Montana.
Ghosts only
Garnet Ghost Town will be closed this week while dead and dying timber is removed from the area.
“There will be logging equipment working at Garnet, and the only way we can ensure public safety is to close the town to visitors for a few days,” said Nancy Anderson, Missoula field manager for the Bureau of Land Management.
The project is part of an effort to reduce the threat of wildland fire in the forest surrounding Garnet. Unless the heavy load of dead and dying timber is removed, a wildfire is virtually inevitable at some point and could leave the historic ghost town in ashes, Anderson said.
An infestation of mountain pine beetles in recent years has added to the steady buildup of dead trees, killing nearly all of the lodgepole pine in the area.
The closure runs Monday through Friday. For more information on the project, contact the BLM's Missoula Field Office at 329-3914.
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George Wuerthner wrote on Sep 16, 2008 7:39 PM:
" What a lousy piece of journalism. We get the viewpoint of the BLM (a timber agency) and the timber company. The fact is that once trees die, they are less prone to fire than when alive. Removing dead trees destroys the ecological foundations for the forest, including snags for cavity nesting birds, down logs which are home to ants--which along with cavity nesting birds--are the biggest predators on insects like pine beetles. And logging has many other impacts including the introduction of weeds, and disturbance of wildlife, not to mention the logging roads become new routes for ORVS. How about getting the viewpoints of others instead of just writing a fluff propaganda piece for the timber industry. "
G.T. Dickson wrote on Sep 15, 2008 11:02 PM: