Timber Plan Unleashes Flood Worry Forest Service Counters That Project Will Leave Fewer Roads, Stream Crossings

A proposed timber sale on the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River will lead to more of the flooding that pummeled North Idaho this winter, local environmental groups say.

And while federal law no longer allows them to appeal the sale, the Kootenai Environmental Alliance hopes public outrage will stop the Barney Rubble’s Cabin salvage sale, 15 miles northeast of Coeur d’Alene.

But by the time the project is over, there will be fewer roads, fewer culverts and a healthier water-shed, the Forest Service counters. And it will bring the taxpayers more than $400,000.

That’s little comfort to opponents. “I’m convinced, along with quite a few other people, that a large part of the flooding was exacerbated by road building and clearcutting in the upper reaches of the North Fork,” said George Brabb, of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance. “We’re very much concerned” about Barney Rubble’s Cabin.

The Environmental Alliance mulled over several concerns during its meeting Thursday. Those include the effect of the 3.4 million board feet of logging on fish habitat, water quality, and whether more flooding would push more of the toxic metals from mining downstream toward Coeur d’Alene.

The Forest Service has logged the North Fork area many times during the last three and a half decades. So additional logging gives pause to fishing groups that have done watershed restoration work in the North Fork drainage.

“Are we putting Band-Aids on bleeding arteries?” asked Doug Fagerness of the North Idaho Flycasters, gesturing at an aerial photo of vast clearcuts on the North Fork. “If we were at war and the enemy did that to us, we’d be outraged.”

Barney Rubble’s Cabin has twice been attempted as a regular timber sale and was defeated by appeals. It is back, this time under the salvage law passed last summer by Congress. Environmental groups question how a formerly green timber sale - which they successfully appealed - could be offered as a salvage sale.

“The sale we are offering is different from the original two proposals,” said Susan Matthews, Fernan District Ranger.

The original sales covered between 6 million and 8 million board feet of timber and the new version only includes the dead and dying grand fir, Douglas fir, hemlock and a little white pine.

The sale only affects 1 percent of the watershed and “our hydrologists feel that is a very conservative part of the watershed,” Matthews said.

The area should be in better shape and less vulnerable to flood damage after the logging, because the project includes removal of 26 miles of road and 51 stream crossings, she said.

The Idaho Fish and Game and others would prefer the Forest Service take out the roads and restore the watershed without the logging, Matthews acknowledged. But there isn’t money available to do it that way.

, DataTimes