Big Creek Campground timber sale posted

A big wind storm last fall uprooted trees and left about 153 tons of salvageable timber blocking access to the popular Big Creek Campground, about 20 miles north of Columbia Falls on the North Fork of the Flathead River.

“It was a big storm that came through the Friday after Thanksgiving,” Hungry Horse Ranger Station forester Paul Donnellon said. “We had some cold weather and snow, then it warmed up and rained a lot after that.”

Donnellon likened the area to “kind of a vortex, a lot like Columbia Heights.”

The Flathead National Forest recently posted a timber prospectus for an urgent removal sale for the blown-down salvage timber. The bidding period will end April 7.

Donnellon estimates about five truckloads of timber will be removed, and it needs to be done before the summer tourist season begins in earnest. Some conditions, however, might warrant an extension.

“Right now, the county has weight limits on the North Fork Road, and if we get a lot of rain and the roads are wet, we won’t be able to operate,” he said.

Donnellon said the blowdown extends beyond the boundaries of the 55-acre campground, but only downed or hazardous trees inside the campground will be salvaged.

The blowdown sale includes about 14,400 board-feet of lodgepole sawtimber and 46,800 board-feet of Douglas fir sawtimber. The Forest Service hopes work will start by late April or early May and be done by Memorial Day.

The entire sale area is a special protected area for wildlife bordered by a streamside management zone and includes infrastructure that must be protected — well heads, bear-proof boxes, Dumpsters, signs, picnic tables, barriers, driveways and gates.