Farragut State Park plans to thin trees on 900 acres
Farragut State Park wants to thin 900 acres of young trees to improve forest health and decrease the possibility of disease and insect infestation.
But a local conservation group thinks the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation needs to give the public more specifics on the exact locations of where crews would remove trees. Kootenai Environmental Alliance is especially skeptical because of the state’s 2002 plan to log the shoreline of the popular park on the south end of Lake Pend Oreille. Public outcry stopped the project.
“Don’t rush into this,” said Barry Rosenberg, of the alliance. “They need to shed some sunlight on this issue so the public can make an informed judgment.”
Today is the last day the state is taking public comments on the proposal that would create at least a 2-foot buffer zone between trees in the most overgrown areas. None of the thinning would take place along the shoreline, and no trees larger than 20 inches in diameter would be removed, said David White, regional manager for the state parks department.
Thinning would start this fall and remove the smallest and most unhealthy trees that have no commercial value, White said. Many portions of the 900 acres are open meadows with no trees. The majority of the thinning would occur in the park’s higher, flat areas where trees have filled in since 1973 when the park was no longer used for major Boy Scout jamborees.
“The trees are literally all growing on top of each other,” White said.
Rosenberg was part of a citizen advisory group that was created in 2002 after the state proposed logging the Farragut shoreline. The committee recommended against logging the waterfront but did agree that thinning is needed in some overcrowded areas.
Rosenberg said it’s likely that this new thinning proposal does follow the committee’s recommendation but added that the state needs to provide more information on each area slated for logging and that park officials should take people on site tours to show them which trees would be removed. He wants the state to extend the public comment period.
White said the new proposal does follow the recommendations of the advisory committee and that the park manager has been willing to give tours.