Logging along North Fork Road will start this fall
<p>The North Fork of the Flathead River winds its way through burned timber with the high peaks of Glacier National Park in the background.</p>
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has advertised for bids for a timber sale on state lands along the west side of the North Fork Road about three miles south of Polebridge.
Sealed bids will be opened on May 27 for part of the Moran Cyclone Contract Harvest Timber Sale. Bids will be taken about 12,578 tons of sawlogs of Engelmann spruce, western larch, alpine fir, Douglas fir and lodgepole pine. Log delivery will take place between Oct. 15 and March 15, 2015.
The Moran Cyclone timber project proposes harvesting about 5 million to 6 million board feet of timber from the Coal Creek Forest. The goal is to raise about $1.1 million for the School of Mines, State Normal School, public buildings and Montana State University trusts. About $143,517 in fees would be collected for forestry improvement projects.
Another stated goal is to improve forest health. An environmental assessment for the timber project cites concerns about dwarf mistletoe, infectious root diseases, diminished overstory tree growth, improving stand conditions, maintaining connectivity for wildlife and reducing fuel loads to reduce the potential for high-hazard wildfires.
Plans call for commercially thinning about 240 acres, pre-commercially thinning about 230 acres, regenerating new stands on 392 acres through seed trees, performing road maintenance and best management practices on 12.3 miles of existing road, and constructing 1.75 miles of temporary roads that would be reclaimed after harvesting.
The project site is adjacent to the North Fork Road, about one mile east of Cyclone Lake and near the northern end of Winona Ridge. Because of steep slopes and identified slumping sites, skyline harvesting will be used on about a third of the bid area.
DNRC issued scoping notices for the Moran Cyclone timber project in July 2013 and received two letters, two e-mails and one phone call during the 30-day comment period.
A 132-page environmental assessment checklist for the project was released in March this year.
For more information, visit online at http://dnrc.mt.gov/Trust/Timber/Bids.asp.