Wet Weather Still Trouble

Unseasonably wet weather continues to cause damage in the southwestern reaches of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

A large chunk of the old Milwaukee Railroad route, 15 miles northeast of Avery, is the latest reported problem. Late November flooding caused a substantial pond to build behind the Moss Creek fill.

That became so wet it collapsed, pushing 200,000 tons of material downstream, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The collapse left a large gap in the roadway that is more than 100 feet deep and 200 feet wide.

It has severed the link between the old Milwaukee Railroad route and Forest Service Road 506. At least a half-dozen other roads on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests have been closed by slides and slumps.

Several snowmobile routes also are closed.

Meanwhile, 12 conservation groups are asking the U.S. Forest Service’s Regional Headquarters to form a committee to investigate more than 100 major slides on the Clearwater National Forest. The largest, on Quartz Creek east of Dworshak Reservoir, moved some 500,000 tons of rock and dirt into a road and creek.

It will cost taxpayers an estimated $8 million to fix Forest Service roads in North Idaho and Western Montana alone.

The conservation groups want the Forest Service to document where roads and logging were the cause of torrents of mud and debris charging down mountainsides.

The Forest Service has acknowledged some of the slides were caused by roads and clear-cuts in combination with an unusual amount of November rain. At the same time, there were major slides in at least eight to 10 watersheds that have not been logged and have no roads.

, DataTimes