Marshall Woods project hinges on Rattlesnake logging

“This is going to be the most scrutinized timber sale in the history of the Forest Service,” said Jake Kreilick, chairman of the Lolo Restoration Committee, which has been monitoring the proposed Marshall Woods Project since 2007. “It’s not like this is pristine forest – the area was heavily managed by Montana Power, and lots of people were living up there for a while. And it’s not a ecological issue – those are pretty dense stands (of trees) that would have been thinned out by fire.

“But from a social standpoint, a lot of us are questioning if the Forest Service can pull something like this off. Do they have the capacity to manage something like this?”

The Missoula public will get a chance to review the plan and give feedback at an open house 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at the DoubleTree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

The project will affect about 4,000 acres with prescribed burning, thinning, replanting, hazardous fuels removal, weed treatment and logging in a big block north of Mount Jumbo.

Treated areas will have about 50 percent of the understory removed, especially trees infected with root-rot, mountain pine beetle or overcrowded conditions.

But the part most Missoulians will notice involves cutting about 80 truckloads of sawlogs from the hillsides along the main Rattlesnake Creek corridor trail. That area is in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area, not the Rattlesnake Wilderness farther north.

Another commercial logging unit will address forest crowding in the Marshall Creek drainage on the east side of Mount Jumbo.

That area will also get extensive lighter treatments to improve the look and health of old Plum Creek Timber Co. logging lands the Forest Service acquired from the Montana Legacy Project.

Work there will include thinning and replanting to soften the edges of clearcuts visible from the Missoula Valley.

In the process, forest crews will also convert about 1.4 miles of existing road into a hike/bike trail near Missoula city open space north of Mount Jumbo and Marshall Canyon.

Repairs will also take place on the Wallman Loop, Poe Meadows, Three Larches, Woods Gulch and Sheep Mountain trails where heavy equipment is used.

***

Lolo National Forest silviculturist Sheryl Gunn said the commercial logging was needed to fix the bigger problem of protecting the corridor from major wildfires. In a presentation to the Missoula City Council last week, Gunn said the hillsides west of the creek have grown too dense for lighter methods.

“We can’t remove enough material to make the forest fire-resilient if you only take the small trees there,” Gunn said. “And the trees that are 7 to 16 inches in diameter are too big for hand-work.”

The Rattlesnake drainage was identified as the second-highest wildfire risk in the Missoula County Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Missoula District Ranger Jen Hensiek said the combined treatments should keep future fires burning along the ground (instead of more dangerous crown fires) for the next 20 or 30 years.

The Lolo Restoration Committee has a mix of conservation, academic and industry forest watchers.

Kreilick said its members were agreed that about 95 percent of the Marshall Woods Project was a good idea, although some remain concerned about the commercial logging portion. He said the group would offer a final response after hearing public comment at Wednesday’s meeting.

***

While the corridor trail is the Rattlesnake’s most popular feature, it’s also a legacy of past heavy use.

Missoula pioneer Thomas Greenough logged much of the drainage for railroad ties starting in 1884, and thousands of Missoulians cut firewood there for decades after.

In the past century, at least 140 people lived in the drainage, and the shadows of their homesteads can be seen in many meadows and openings today.

The trail is actually a road built to haul equipment for dam construction at lakes in the upper end of the Rattlesnake Canyon.

Hensiek said the logging trucks and other machinery would close public trail access for 30 or 40 days during the corridor logging phase. Most of the work would take place starting about 1.5 miles north of the trailhead to the Poe Meadows area about three miles up.

“As you can imagine, this is a particularly complex project,” Hensiek said. “There will be no log-hauling from 3 p.m. Friday to midnight Sunday. We’re avoiding commuting times, so no hauling when kids are coming and going to school and during rush hours. The environmental assessment is 300 pages long. We’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

Kreilick said that included 70 pages of mitigation measures to protect water quality, viewsheds, habitat and visitor experiences.

“That’s almost unheard of,” Kreilick said. “It will depend on what kind of contractors bid, who’s selected, can they wade through this lengthy list of mitigations and not make residents’ and recreationists’ lives more difficult up there. We’ll certainly find out how well they’re doing.”