Federal grant will help UI explore impact of logging

A $350,000 federal grant will help scientists from the University of Idaho explore modern logging’s impact on the land.

Research already is under way on a plot of private land in the Mica Creek watershed near St. Maries, said Tim Link, assistant professor of forest hydrology at the university’s College of Natural Resources. The grant will allow the research to be expanded to include more of a focus on stream flow and ecology.

“This is really the first true evaluation of how modern timber practices impact water flow and water quality,” said Link, who is leading the interdisciplinary team of scientists.

Until now, most of the data has come from studies conducted in the 1950s and ‘60s, when timber companies clearcut massive stands of old growth with little regard for stream protection. The clearcuts resembled World War I battlefields and resulted in widespread habitat loss for fish and wildlife.

Today, much of the harvest comes from privately owned second-growth forests. Laws now require a lighter touch: buffer strips along streams are required, road-building techniques have improved and selective thinning has largely replaced clearcuts, Link said.

The practices clearly have improved, Link said, “But the question is by how much.”

The grant was included in a massive congressional appropriations bill supported by Idaho’s senior senator, Republican Larry Craig. A $350,000 extension to the grant also is included in a pending bill, Link said.

One part of the research will employ sap flow meters and tracer studies to account for every drop of rain or melted snow in harvested forests. Preliminary results already indicate that modern logging has come a long way in a generation, Link said.

In large clearcuts from the past, for instance, snow melted quickly and was sent downstream in damaging torrents. Today, with selective harvests and 75-foot-wide buffer strips along streams, aquatic life in forests appears to be faring much better, Link said, adding that the data have not yet been fully analyzed.

The work is being conducted on Potlatch Corporation’s Mica Creek Experimental Watershed, where studies have been under way since 1990. Link stressed that Potlatch has been generous with their land, but the company has not tried to sway the research in favor of logging.

“They did this without anybody twisting their arm,” Link said. “We’re not tied to them funding-wise. … They’re really letting us do our own thing.”

In April, Potlatch became the nation’s first publicly traded timber company to agree to have its forest management practices scrutinized by the Forest Stewardship Council. The nonprofit group certifies forest products using strict standards aimed at protecting forest ecosystems.

Potlatch owns 668,000 acres in Idaho, according to information from its Web site.

Apart from the Potlatch land, the University of Idaho researchers hope to use the federal grant to expand their study to other forest plots in Idaho, Montana and Colorado. This will add a greater variety of climate conditions to the research, Link said.

The final result of the research, Link said, will be information used to enhance forest sustainability in an era of ever-increasing demand for paper and timber products.

“It absolutely will help,” he said.