Swan Forest the focus of another timber sale

By MIKE RICHESON

Bigfork Eagle

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is proposing the White Porcupine Multiple Timber Sale Project. The project would consist of several timber sales from about 10,320 acres of state trust lands west of Highway 83.

Selected lands are in and adjacent to the Woodward Creek, South Woodward Creek, Cedar Creek, Whitetail Creek and Porcupine Creek drainages.

The proposed project would take place over a three-year period beginning in 2009. Public comment on the project will remain open until June 30, 2007. A team will review the comments and use them when developing alternative harvest proposals. The DNRC is also working on a draft Environmental Impact Statement, which should be released in October 2008.

The Swan River State Forest has been the focus of much debate for the past year due to another timber sale - the massive Three Creeks timber sale, which will harvest 23.7 million board feet on the east side of Highway 83. Although the amount of board feet to be taken from the White Porcupine project has not been determined, the two projects will likely overlap and remove more than 6.7 million board feet of timber the Swan is slated to give up annually.

The state-wide annual sustainable yield is currently set at 53.2 million board feet, and northwest Montana bears the brunt of that load, supplying 32.2 million board feet per year.

"If our only goal was revenue, our annual yield would be 95 million board feet," David Groeschl, forest management bureau chief for the DNRC, said. "That would come to $346 million per year. But when we put in all the commitments for our forest plan, buffers, things like the Swan Valley Grizzly Bear Conservation Agreement and other environmental concerns, that reduces harvest to 53.2 million board feet per year at a value of $146 million.

"We believe there is a balance between revenue and sustaining forests."

Although the state may take more than the current annual yield in the Swan, Groeschl said that number is conservative, and the harvest will still be less than growth in the forest.

"Growth in the Swan is between seven and 12 million board feet per year," he said.

Bob Sandman, northwest area manager for the DNRC, said that because timber sales are based on three-year time frames, the annual harvest fluctuates to meet the average.

Northwest Montana's annual yield may range from 20-80 million board feet per year, but over a period of three years, the harvest will come out at around 32 million board feet.

"Timber sales are crafted based on the best place to harvest," Sandman said. "In the early 80s, because of the bark beetle epidemic in Libby, we harvested mostly around Libby but not in the Swan."

Critics of the timber sales often point to the state-wide quota as an improper tool to drive harvest, but members of the DNRC insist that meeting quotas and revenue goals are only part of a large equation.

"We're not cutting timber to meet a quota but because we want to have a working forest in the Swan," Sandman said. "We have to determine what type of harvest should occur to achieve that. Most of the foresters we hire, their perspective is they are going to grow a forest, not cut it down. The objective is how do we grow the best forest and still make money for our school systems."

To submit comments on the proposed White Porcupine timber sale, contact Kristen Baker, Forest Management Supervisor, Swan River State Forest, 34925 MT Highway 83, Swan Lake, MT, 59911. Baker can also be reached by fax at 406-754-2884, e-mail at kbaker@mt.gov or by phone at 406-754-2301.