Forest Service Plans To Eliminate Roads

The U.S. Forest Service intends to put to bed thousands of miles of old logging roads on the Clearwater National Forest.

Forest Supervisor Jim Caswell outlined the agency’s plan to the Clearwater Basin Advisory Group.

He estimated the 1.8 million-acre Clearwater holds about 2,000 miles of old roads for logging.

The roads, now overgrown with trees and impassable even by motorcycles, look like they are healed. But, once a torrent of water hits them, they channel mud into streams used by salmon and trout, he said.

Just getting a handle on how many roads are out there will be expensive, Caswell said.

The Northwest Power Planning Council, as part of its salmon recovery program, gave the forest $100,000 to inventory roads in two areas.

The Forest Service spent $48,000 to chronicle roads on Squaw Creek, a tributary of the upper Lochsa River. It showed 65 miles of old roads, about 50 of which should be put to bed. It spent $52,000 to tally roads in The Cedars area along the Clearwater’s upper North Fork, and came up with 75 miles of road and 50 miles to obliterate.

It is not just old roads that cause problems. The agency has eliminated the Schwartz Creek Road built in 1992 on the Palouse Ranger District because it was so prone to problems.

“With all the checks and balances we have, we screwed this one up. This road should never have been built,” Caswell said.

About 1.4 miles of roads were erased for $15,000.

He said most of the road work will be paid by congressional appropriations. In some areas where timber sales are planned, the old roads could be eliminated as part of those projects.