Forest Service Plans Monitoring Of Timber Sale Stream-Flow Gauge On Wolf Lodge Creek To Be Replaced By Smaller Ones On Two Tributaries

The U.S. Forest Service has come up with a plan to monitor the impact of its huge, controversial Horizon timber sales.

The plan doesn’t include keeping a stream-flow gauge on Wolf Lodge Creek. That will be yanked in September.

Wolf Lodge is a major spawning and raising area for Lake Coeur d’Alene trout. The Forest Service has promised that its logging won’t increase flooding and sediment that could hurt the fish population.

State biologists have argued that the Wolf Lodge gauge, in place for the last 10 years, would help determine whether the federal agency is keeping its promise.

The new monitoring plan will provide that assurance - and do it better and more cheaply, according to hydrologist Rick Patten of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

“It’s more than we would do for a normal timber sale,” said Patten, who wrote the plan. “But this isn’t a normal timber sale. There’s a lot of interest in it, and it’s a big sale.”

Among other actions, Patten’s plan calls for two smaller recording gauges on tributaries of Wolf Lodge Creek. One of them, on Marie Creek, has been operating for several years; the other will be installed on Lonesome Creek.

Different kinds of gauges in other streams will measure when water is at its highest, but they won’t record when those peaks occur.

Because the tributaries are in the timber sale area, it will be easier, Patten said, to relate any changes in runoff to the Horizon logging. In contrast, he said, the Wolf Lodge Creek gauge downstream measures the combined runoff of federal and private forest lands.

“I agree with him on that point,” said Chip Corsi, a biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Corsi sent a letter this week supporting the new monitoring plan.

“With some minor modifications, it will probably be all right, assuming they commit to it,” he said Wednesday. “With budgets being what they are, there’s some question it will remain a priority.”

The new monitoring plan would cost $5,500 the first year, then $3,000 per year during the life of the timber sale. The money will come from proceeds of the $14 million sale.

The large Wolf Lodge Creek gauge costs $8,500 to operate each year.

, DataTimes