Cottonwood Cutting Along St. Joe River Put On Hold Again Consultation With U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Necessary

Cutting of cottonwood trees along the St. Joe River, scheduled to resume this week, has been delayed again for up to two months.

The controversial logging is part of a levee improvement project meant to protect St. Maries-area residents from a repeat of last winter’s disastrous flood.

It was temporarily stopped on Feb. 12 by a federal biologist in order to protect migratory bald eagles roosting in the trees.

Now, the Economic Development Administration, which is funding the project, has told Benewah County not to restart the work until a consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is completed.

The consultation is required by the Endangered Species Act, under which the eagles are protected. The Audubon Society has threatened to sue everyone involved in the tree cutting, in part because the act allegedly was violated.

Although most of the large cottonwoods have been cut, concern about the cutting remains high. One St. Maries logger has said he’ll chain himself to his favorite cottonwood before allowing it to be cut.

A protest was held along the river Monday morning, and drew about 25 people. Among those present was Sandie Thatcher, who lives along the Meadowhurst levee. She was heartbroken when the 10 cottonwoods on her family’s property were cut.

“The shadowy St. Joe looks pretty scuzzy,” she said of her river view.

Thatcher remains confused about whether the tree removal is necessary as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers insists. Many of her neighbors lost their homes in the 1996 flood.

“If it’s for the good of my neighbors, fine. I’m for it. If this is just a bunch of B.S. to get federal money…”

If Benewah County doesn’t clear the levees, the Corps of Engineers says, residents won’t get federal help when the next flood hits.

Corps officials have agreed to send an engineer to review the tree situation this week.

Among those present will be officials of the Idaho Department of Lands and Division of Environmental Quality, who believe removal of the trees is violating water-protection laws and is largely unnecessary.

Decades of experience show the work is indeed needed, corps officials said in a press release issued Monday.

They agree that trees are great wildlife habitat, and help hold a natural riverbank in place when water overflows the banks and spreads into a floodplain.

But, the corps officials said, “along the leveed section of the St. Joe River, this ideal natural scenario has been drastically altered” to protect people living in the flood plain.

The whole point of the levees is to keep water out of the floodplain. They must act like dams, corps officials said, and be strong enough to contain a fast-moving wall of water 10 feet or higher.

During floods, “Trees with extensive root structures which have penetrated the levee bind the soil in a cohesive mass. Water rapidly rushes down the channel, hitting trees on the levee. This causes turbulence, and scouring of the levee.”

Continued scouring “can lead to total failure” of the levee, they said.

Larry Morrison, engineering geologist for the Idaho Department of Lands, took issue with that scenario.

“When they talk about water rushing down, that’s a theoretically correct description of what can happen,” Morrison said. “But in this case, it just doesn’t happen.”

The reason, Morrison said, is that the St. Joe flows into Lake Coeur d’Alene. During a flood, slackwater from the lake backs up all the way to Calder - which is well upstream of St. Maries.

That slackwater slows the speed of the flood water, and doesn’t push over trees.

“We’ve carefully examined the dike, for miles and miles, looking for examples of overturned trees. We’ve found maybe three,” he said.

Cottonwoods are relatively weak trees that will bend before they pull out of the ground, Morrison said. He noted that the water that destroyed homes and businesses last February simply overtopped the levees.

, DataTimes