Potlatch Finds Slides Mostly Road-Related

Potlatch Corp. lands showed similar damage from landslides as the neighboring Clearwater National Forest during major storms that washed through the Northwest the winter before last.

The company released a study Friday detailing the results of a landslide survey on its 600,000 acres in northern Idaho.

It found nearly 1,800 landslides after the wet winter of 1995-96. Twice the average amounts of rain and snow fell on northern Idaho. Taken together, the landslides totaled about 250 acres.

The largest was an estimated 1,000 cubic yards, said Terrance Cundy, Potlatch resource hydrologist.

Overall, 83 percent, or about 1,500 of the Potlatch landslides, were road-related, Cundy said. The study showed a higher percentage of those landslides on company lands than on national forest land, where about half were road-related.