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Logging operations shutter popular road in North Idaho

A logger checks a load before hauling it away in this photo from the U.S. Forest Service.  (Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service )
A logger checks a load before hauling it away in this photo from the U.S. Forest Service.  (Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service )
By Michael Wright michaelw@spokesman.com(509) 459-5508

Federal officials are temporarily closing more than 30 miles of road in North Idaho to make room for dozens of logging trucks to roll through each day.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forest this week closed the popular Bunco Road and parts of three other roads east of Athol to the public while loggers carry out a pair of timber sales in the area.

Starting Wednesday, public driving is prohibited from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. It will reopen before Oct. 10 for big game hunting season, according to the Forest Service. Residents of Lakeview are exempted from the closure.

Forest Service officials expect up to 60 fully loaded log trucks to come out of the area each day and are closing the roads in the area to prevent congestion and protect public safety.

Loggers are working on the Hairy Potter and Lamb Chop timber sales, which are part of a broader project known as the Potter’s Wheel.

The overall project was approved in 2019 and included a mix of logging and burning across a 29,000-acre area south of the Magee Historical Site in the upper reaches of the Little North Fork Coeur d’Alene River drainage.

Jered Bowman, the timber management officer for the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, said six timber sales came out of that decision. Three have been completed in the years since, and there’s one more to come after the two that will be carried out this summer.

The Hairy Potter sale is a stewardship project that has been under contract for three years and the Lamb Chop sale was put under contract last fall, Bowman said.

The Lamb Chop sale will take place on 544 acres and the Hairy Potter sale will cover 616 acres. Combined, they are expected to produce over 21 million board feet of timber.

In its news release, the Forest Service said the sales would “create or sustain around 600 industry jobs.”

Segments of four roads will be closed, but all of them are accessed from Bunco Road. The road is known to be a popular driving route east of Athol and Lake Pend Oreille for gathering firewood, picking huckleberries and more.

Bowman said it will be the main access point for log trucks, and that not closing it could create safety risks.

“It’s a busy road,” he said.

The closure covers 33 miles of road. It begins on its west end at a snowmobile parking lot on Bunco-High Drive Road (No. 332) and goes to its intersection with Crooked Ridge Road (No. 258).

Crooked Ridge Road is closed from there to its intersection with Cascade Magee Road (No. 534) at Cascade Saddle. That road is closed from there to its intersection with Potter Creek Road (No. 911). Potter Creek Road is closed for its entire 9.7 miles.