Beetles May Force Clearcuts Thousands Of Acres Earmarked For Logging In Populated Areas

About 25,000 acres of timber, much of it right outside residents’ picture windows, likely will be logged next summer in North Idaho and Eastern Washington in response to an insect infestation.

As much as 140 million board feet of timber - twice the annual allowable logging in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests - is headed for sawmills.

And this is only the first round. The Forest Service “absolutely” will be back with similar plans next year, said Dave Wright, Panhandle National Forests supervisor.

Existing timber sales may be expanded to allow more logging wherever the fir beetle infestation is serious, although the magnitude of that increased logging still is being calculated.

If the project goes forward, communities from Harrison to Priest Lake are going to have a front-row seat. Much of the proposed logging would be on the boundaries between towns and national forests around Hayden Lake, Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Chain Lakes and near Priest Lake.

The logging won’t stop the fir beetle outbreak but should reduce fire risk and provide timber-sale dollars to pay for watershed restoration and planting more bug-resistant trees, Wright said.

Much of the logging will involve clearcuts, with some larger than the maximum 40 acres per clearcut allowed on federal lands. The project is on a fast track - the chain saws are expected to be roaring by July, depending upon public response.

Those prospects, combined with the lack of specific information about the proposal and the focus on logging mature trees, has drawn intense criticism to the plan.

Because a century of overlogging is a major contributor to the problem beetle, some residents don’t believe more logging will help.

Meanwhile, state and private landowners say if the Forest Service does nothing, the infestation will spread to their lands, which they already have logged in an attempt to slow the beetle spread. The state and private landowners say catastrophic wildfires will take the trees if logging doesn’t.

The current bug bonanza stems partly from a century of logging that removed the most fire and bug resistant trees - western White Pine, ponderosa pine and western larch. Fire suppression has allowed Douglas fir and grand fir to overtake the Inland Northwest forests. The beetles always are around, but not in such large numbers.

The ice storm and the heavy snowfall during the winter of 1996-97 downed much of the Douglas fir, Forest Service entomologist Sandy Kegley said. Those downed trees are preferred for Douglas fir beetle eating and breeding, prompting a beetle explosion in the spring of 1997.

A year later, that burgeoning batch of beetles has taken to munching between 125,000 and 250,000 acres of trees, many of them more susceptible to attack because of last year’s hot, dry summer, the Forest Service says. The Douglas fir turn rusty red, die and become fire fuel, the Forest Service says.

“I’m don’t want to paint the picture we are going to do anything that will stop fire,” Wright said. But, he added, logging, building fire breaks and doing prescribed burning will lessen the intensity.

Clearcuts so close to home will draw criticism, Wright acknowledged. But with replanting, new trees will visibly start to fill the openings within about 15 years.

Logging has to start as soon as possible, before the dead Douglas fir deteriorate and lose value, the Forest Service said. Doing nothing also means the Forest Service will forsake timber sale revenue to do other important work - removing roads and replanting with more bug resistant trees, Wright said.

But environmentalists say they want more specifics.

“It’s a blind date. It’s like they are saying, `Please give us a blank check to do whatever we want because it’s such a serious problem and the time period is short and you have to trust us to do the right thing,’ ” said Guy Bailey of the Selkirk Priest Basin Association. “That’s tough to do based on past disappointments with the Forest Service.”

John Osborn, a founder of The Public Lands Council, said talk of beetle and fire calamities sounds like scare tactics and ignores other problems.

“They have some of the worst watershed damage in the country and it’s particularly serious because of the floods that are disgorged out of the heavily logged watersheds” on the Coeur d’Alene River, Osborn said. “The Forest Service is proposing to make that worse. You can’t log your way to watershed health.”

Industry officials say this is about is making the forests healthier.

“Past logging has contributed to the problem,” said Stefany Bales of the Intermountain Forest Industry Association. “We’ve learned a lot and we’re ready to apply that to improve the conditions of the forests to save it.”

But 25,000 acres should only be the beginning - confining the logging to that area “would be irresponsible,” Bales said.

The Forest Service has a responsibility not to let the problem go to the point neighboring private and state lands are affected, she said, adding that the land isn’t in wilderness or roadless areas, it’s part of what’s traditionally used for commercial timber production.

Frank Carroll, spokesman for Potlatch Corp., agrees.

“If the neighbors have a giant bug incubator, we are helpless … we have a big problem right away,” he said. Beyond that, doing nothing will mean massive clearcutting by wildfire - a sight the public won’t find palatable, Carroll said.

Graphic with map: Bark beetle risk areas

IDAHO HEADLINE: Bark beetles might force clearcutting

This sidebar appeared with the story: IMPACT STATEMENT The Forest Service plans to release a draft environmental impact statement Tuesday regarding its plans for large-scale logging. Copies will be available from the Idaho Panhandle National Forests Supervisor’s Office in Coeur d’Alene. Public meetings will be held early next month.