Slash piles aren’t pleasing, but thinning project going as designed
One of the slash piles from the Crystal Cedar project.
Logging from the Crystal Cedar project north of Columbia Falls has raised the ire of at least one resident, who claimed the large slash piles ruined his favorite huckleberry patches, but the Forest Service said the project overall was being implemented as designed. The large slash piles are the timber that wasn’t merchantable from the sale, Hungry Horse/ Glacier View district ranger Rob Davies said last week.
Resident Terry Petersen said the piles had ruined some of his huckleberry patches.
The piles are large and not too aesthetically pleasing, Davies admitted, but they were necessary because the project didn’t build any new roads.
As such, loggers had to haul the slash farther into larger piles.
The idea of the project was to thin the woods to reduce the threat of a large wildfire, Davies
noted. He toured the units and said overall he was “happy with what he saw.”
Crews did cut down numerous small trees that wouldn’t make dimension lumber or fit on a truck. One unit in particular thinned small trees in a stand of large Ponderosa pines. The pines are fire resistant as long as the smaller trees, known as ladder fuels, don’t catch the crowns on fire. Davies noted that in a few years, the brush will grow back. Even areas where the trees were clear cut for the slash piles, it still appears the huckleberry bushes will survive.
In the meantime, folks can salvage firewood with a permit from them if they want to — most of it is small diameter lodgepole and some birch and other species mixed in.
Davies said the woods needed to be thinned mechanically because they’re too close to homes to do a prescribed burn.
The project is expected to continue into next year, so folks should expect to see more thinning in the area.
It also includes a host of new and improved trails for mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding.
The Gateway to Glacier Trail group recently received a grant from the Forest Resource Advisory Council to build a new pit toilet at the trailhead on Fourth Avenue.