Town’s Treed Skyline Faces Ax Osburn Residents Angry At Plans For Logging In Scenic Play Area

Osburn woke up one morning last month to discover that a revered piece of the town’s backdrop soon would be logged.

It shocked many in this Silver Valley town because the man who owned the land for generations swore it never would happen.

Dar Dunkle welcomed Osburn residents to play, hike and picnic in Shields Gulch for decades. But he died in the 1960s and this year his daughter sold it to a Kellogg logger, ready to harvest.

“Dar Dunkle would turn over in his grave,” said Fred Bardelli. He is leading the Osburn residents who are trying to keep their skyline intact. “He had great reverence for the land and he didn’t like any of the previous logging operations that had gone on around his land.”

Dan Hagman, fourth-generation logger, is willing to laugh about the criticism. He will tread lightly, he said.

“I’m not ashamed of what I’m doing,” Hagman said. “I think it’s a hell of a lot less harmful than pavement and cement.”

Osburn’s dilemma is growing more common as timber harvests move closer to cities. Wallace had similar problems in the early 1990s when Plum Creek wanted to log its ground in the watershed that provides drinking water for the town, Bardelli said.

People near Deary, northeast of Moscow, were unhappy to find the Forest Service selling timber on Potato Hill a few years ago. They still were nursing the wounds from old clearcuts and didn’t want a repeat performance.

Forest Service officials assured them it would be a clean, unobtrusive job. A few months later, that promise unraveled. The logging road contractor sucked a couple of streams dry to get water for dust control.

It hits all quarters. Near Newport, Wash., there was a stir recently when a church decided to log some of its property to build a church camp, noted John Stuart of the Pend Oreille Environmental Team.

Many complaints arise when land goes to developers, who find logging a profitable precursor to building and selling homes.

When the chain saws started revving at the corner of Ramsey Road and Kathleen Avenue in Coeur d’Alene a few years ago, “we had a whole subdivision call us,” said Jim Colla, Idaho Department of Lands.

In the Spokane area, “during the last three years, 90 percent of the complaints are region neighbors complaining about neighbors logging or developers logging a subdivision,” said Paul Balfour of the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

Part of the problem is that people are moving to ranchettes with a logging-skidder view. “They buy 10 to 20 acres, have their piece of paradise, and then when the log truck comes by they say ‘oh no,”’ said Bill Love, who works for the Idaho Department of Lands.

One of the bigger threats to the forest ecosystem is the fragmentation of the forest, created by subdivisions - even the 10-acre home sites, Department of Lands officials added.

Osburn logging opponents have organized a petition drive, held town meetings and asked the Shoshone County commissioners for assistance.

“We’re going to lose all of this tourist money,” worries Ida Bailey of Osburn. “Nobody wants to come and look at a clearcut or a logged-off place.”

They don’t want to stop timber-cutting near town. But they want restrictions: only helicopter logging, no new roads, no expansion of existing roads.

They worry about erosion and increased flooding from Shields Gulch, which has flooded the town before, they say. A hydrologist hired by the Osburn residents warned that even a little logging will mean much more water and mud flushing out of the narrow valley.

They’ve even asked the Shoshone County commissioners to help.

“We have sympathy for that,” said Jack King, Shoshone County commissioner. “We don’t want the land raped where people can see it.”

But it’s important to find middle ground, where there still are ample jobs and people still can do as they please with their property, King said.

There is almost nothing people can do to stop logging on state or private land, especially in Idaho. Even local government, like the town of Osburn, is restricted by Idaho’s right-to-logging law.

That says you can’t sue over or regulate away road construction, spraying with herbicides, logging or other things that might be considered nuisances by neighbors.

Idaho laws set minimum standards for logging on private ground. But “you can have a logging job that’s not very attractive and still be in compliance with the Forest Practices Act,” said Love of the Department of Lands. “To some people, any logging job, if it’s across the fence from them, is ugly.

“We don’t regulate ugly.”

Osburn logging opponents say there’s more at play than regulation.

“There are plenty of places to get timber that have been logged before and can stand this sort of abuse,” Bardelli said. “It’s so rare today to find an ecosystem intact that borders a community.

“It’s a place one can get away and meditate, recreate, hunt and hike and get in tune with himself in a world of increasing clamor and stress,” Bardelli said.

Hagman wants people to give him more credit for how he is handling the 49 acres near Osburn, which he started logging this month. “I don’t agree with all of the clearcutting, slashing and burning, Hagman said.

“That’s not a reflection on loggers, it’s a reflection of poor management.”

There will be no clearcut, no huge housing development, according to Hagman. He may either build a home or sell the ground after it’s logged, he said.

He plans to cut fewer than half of the trees and is concentrating on white pine that is infested with blister rust.

Some of the neighbors support him, Hagman said. Jack Mayfield, whose land borders the area Hagman is logging, confirms that. “I think he owns the property. I think he’s got the right to do with it what he wants,” Mayfield said.

The uproar, Hagman warns, may panic others to hurry up and log their private ground.

Washington regulators already see that. “I think a lot of people think ‘if we don’t log it now, the nasty government is going to come in and tell us we can’t do it,”’ Balfour said.

When the sawdust settles, he considers this a side show. “In Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and western Montana we are stepping into a big change, from ‘my land, my land’ to ‘we all need to live together,”’ Balfour said.

“I don’t think it’s going to go quietly.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Idaho headline: Town’s skyline faces ax

This sidebar appeared with the story: A RIGHT TO LOG There is almost nothing people can do to stop logging on state or private land, especially in Idaho. Even local government, like the town of Osburn, is restricted by Idaho’s right-to-logging law.