Will Young looks for signs of washout as he tramps along an old U.S. Forest Service road.

It’s been years since logging trucks last lumbered down this dirt road, which gradually fades into an alder thicket. The road no longer serves either the timber industry or the public, but it’s still belching sediment into a nearby creek.

“You can see the erosion from the site,” said Young, an aquatics specialist for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, pointing to deep gullies in the roadbed. “That’s what we’re after.”

An unexpected $1.8 million appropriation will help Forest Service officials improve water quality in the Little North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River watershed, a popular recreation area northeast of Coeur d’Alene. The work targets eroding, impassible roads and plugged culverts. Becky Kramer, SR

How familiar are you with the Little North Fork area?

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