Clearing A Path Trees Along Highway 5 Trimmed For Safety, But Some Say Cut Too Much

The smell of pine filled the air Wednesday, as a rumbling excavator scooped up felled trees alongside state Highway 5.

Heyburn State Park is logging timber along several miles of the roadway, a main thoroughfare to St. Maries.

Workers are removing hazardous trees, state park and transportation officials said. The cutting also will allow sunlight onto the road surface, helping melt winter snow.

“Our main concern is safety. In wintertime, you come down here and there’s trees all over the road,” said park ranger Ken Paulson.

Cutting back the forest also will help drivers see deer near the road and slow down, he said.

Workers also are felling trees that threaten power lines near the road, adding to fire danger, Paulson said. In a six-month period last year near Parkline, he said, trees fell across power lines 10 times.

But some residents say the park is cutting with a cleaver when it should be using a scalpel.

“It’s total overkill,” said Jess Marratt, 46, of Plummer. “It was like driving through a small tunnel. Now it’s like driving down any other state highway, with stumps on each side.”

He said he fears it will change the character of the road, and set a precedent for logging within park boundaries.

“Why in the hell, in a ‘natural park,’ doesn’t someone say anything?” said Marratt, former mayor of Plummer. “I’ll be the first to admit there’s a lot of decay and degradation, but that’s the way the cycle goes. If you’re going to have a natural park, have a natural park.”

St. Maries logger Rusty Young, sharpening a saw at the site Wednesday, summed up the problem best.

“There’s an unnatural road running through a natural park,” he said.

State transportation officials said Wednesday they have no intention of changing the 45 mph speed limit along Highway 5 through the park. But Marratt pointed out that the road is frequented by logging and wood-chip trucks rushing to and from mills. He said he fears the wide-open visibility will encourage truck drivers to go even faster.

“Who’s going to be seeing the ospreys sitting in the trees, and the bald eagles and the ducks?” he said. “They’ll be too busy trying to dodge those 80-ton trucks.”

“I’m concerned because it looks like more logging than is necessary to keep the road safe,” said Julie Hoffmeyer, 33, of Plummer. “We don’t need to make it up to our speed for our fast lifestyle - it should be a preserve.”

State workers marked the trees to be cut, including dead trees, leaning trees and ones with exposed roots. In most areas, they went back from the road only as far as a tree could fall.

All told, the park expects to log about 160,000 board-feet of timber, Paulson said. That’s about enough to build 16 homes.

“It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the millions and millions (of board-feet) in this park,” said Young. “We didn’t even put a dent in it.”

On April 22, park workers will use a “slash-buster” machine to mow down small trees and brush left behind. The park will net about $13,000, Paulson said.

“I love this place as much as anybody,” he said. “But there’s two trees down there with crosses on them. Three people died.”

The trees they hit, he said, were too close to the road.

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