Winter Made Roads Slip, Slide Away Officials Say Many Forest Service Roads Will Remain Closed All Summer

Heavy snow and soaking rains have taken a toll on U.S. Forest Service roads in Boundary County, causing landslides and washouts that will keep some roads closed all summer.

“It’s really bad. We got hammered this year,” said Terry Roth, the road manager for the Bonners Ferry Ranger District. “It seems like every day we go out we find something else. We have a multitude of roads with slips, slides and blown out culverts.”

The damage so far is estimated at $800,000. The district has a maintenance budget of only $125,000.

“That nowhere begins to cover the cost of fixing these roads,” Roth said.

Crews haven’t even been able to get to some areas to assess damage. Forest Service trails also are covered by slides and Roth said it looks like a tornado last weekend flattened an area near Deer Creek and Keno Creek, a spot for huckleberry pickers.

“It appears we are in the worst shape of all the districts in the Panhandle,” he said. “We had two super-wet winters that really overloaded the soils and the weight of the water has been dragging the hillsides down.”

Access into the Selkirk Mountains will be limited this year, at least on Forest Service roads. Popular routes such as Ball Creek and Trout Creek likely will stay closed all summer because of washouts and landslides. Myrtle Creek, Boundary Creek and Snow Creek also are questionable.

A group of federal highway officials are coming to survey the damage in the Bonners Ferry district, but not until July. The group will decide if the Forest Service gets emergency funds to fix the roads. Some of the money, however, is tied up in Congress in a disaster relief bill to help flood victims in North Dakota.

“It’s going to be late if we do get the money, then we will have a lot of planning and coordinating to do,” said Dale Dieter, the district hydrologist. “It could be late fall or even next year before we get some of these roads open.”

Roman Nose, a popular hiking area, probably will not be accessible until after the Fourth of July. That’s not because of road damage but because of snowpack.

“The snowpack that is still up there is tremendous. You could probably go snowmobiling up there today,” Roth said.

For now, Forest Service crews are heading out with saws and opening roads that are blocked mainly by downed trees and other debris. The district has about 600 miles of road open full time and another 250 miles of road that are restricted to access during certain times of the year.

“We don’t have a lot of manpower here, but we are picking away at them,” he said. “We have tons of roads with little culverts washed out of them and it just takes time to fix.

, DataTimes