Timber work hinges on ruling

James Stupack has become an experienced hand at fuel reduction work, carrying out the first project exclusively aimed at reducing national forest fire risks to adjacent properties from Hungry Horse to West Glacier in 2004.

Stupack, the owner of Tough Go Logging, is now neck deep in fuel reduction projects on the Flathead National Forest as a subcontractor on projects in the Swan Valley and on his own contract in the Blankenship area north of Columbia Falls.

But those projects and others - nine across the Flathead Forest and hundreds across the country - were approved under a special rule that has been found unlawful by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In ruling in favor of the Sierra Club, the court ordered a lower court to issue an injunction to stop projects approved under the "categorical exclusion" rule, but that has yet to happen.

Until the injunction is issued, projects on the Flathead and other national forests will proceed.

"We have been hitting it pretty hard this past year, and we will continue to do that," Stupack said of the Blankenship project, which involves brush removal and tree thinning that is projected to yield 4.7 million board feet of timber off 830 acres.

The Blankenship project concentrates on a spit of national forest land that is mostly surrounded by private property. When the work started, Stupack said he encountered a "wall of lodgepole" in one area that presented a clear threat to neighboring properties and structures.

"When you have that much fuel in your back yard, if it ever does catch fire, there's nothing that's going to save you," Stupack said.

Blankenship is considered a "100 percent utilization" project, with Stupack using specialized chipping equipment to grind up small trees for use as boiler fuel. There are no slash piles to be burned.

"We're supplying about 12 different businesses in four western states with materials off this project," Stupack said.

Last year, that aspect of the project attracted visiting foresters from Kosovo, Jamaica and the west African nation of Liberia.

"They were extremely impressed that nothing is going to waste," said Stupack, who estimates the project is now about 50 percent finished.

Because of the 9th Circuit Court's ruling, there is uncertainty and concern about the future of projects that account for more than half of the Flathead forest's current timber program.

"The volume that comes from these projects is part of the forest's overall timber program," said Cathy Calloway, the forest's timber program manager. "We've been working hard to integrate our timber and fuels-management programs together."

The forest exceeded last year's harvest target of 29 million board feet with an actual harvest of 34 million board feet, and this year's target is 27 million board feet, Calloway said.

Julia Riber, the Forest Service's northern regional litigation coordinator, said it remains to be seen how an injunction would be applied, because the court's order allowed some discretion to exclude projects that are close to completion.

"The question is, how is this injunction supposed to be applied," Riber said, noting that a hearing date on the injunction issue has yet to be set.

"It could be a while before it's actually determined how the injunction is going to apply," she said.

The 9th Circuit's ruling found that the categorical exclusion rule for hazardous fuels projects was flawed in several ways. Mainly, the court found that the rule "failed to assess" the impacts of projects and failed to provide specifics, such as the maximum diameters of trees that can be removed or any limits on the proximity of projects within a geographic area.

The rule - developed as part of then-Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth's campaign to end "analysis paralysis" - excluded the agency from having to prepare often costly, time-consuming environmental assessments on fuels projects covering 1,000 acres or less, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

And that allowed for expeditious project development.

Calloway and other Flathead officials maintain that projects approved under the rule tended to have relatively strong local support, and revenues generated through special "stewardship contracts" have been applied to other purposes, such as road or stream restoration projects.

"Most of these treatments involve thinning from below" as opposed to removing the biggest, most fire-resistant trees, Calloway said. "They're aimed at changing fuel loading and fire behavior so it would be easier to fight a fire on these lands that are close to private lands."

Because of that proximity, the projects tend to attract attention.

"The key for us is that the [ranger] districts have worked really hard in working with local folks," Calloway said. "And I think people have been happy with the results. We've been doing the right thing, I think."

The Flathead Forest approved its first project under the categorical exclusion rule in 2003.

It involved 198 scattered acres that directly butted up against private properties from Hungry Horse to West Glacier. The owners of those properties often took a deep interest in project details and in some cases assisted by providing access for the work to be carried out.

"There's a very high degree of public interest, not only from adjacent landowners but from the public at large," said Jimmy DeHerrera, ranger on the Hungry Horse and Glacier View districts. "As far as public support, we've never been able to develop a project that gets 100 percent support, but these fuel projects go about as far as you can get."

Since the Hungry Horse-West Glacier project, DeHerrera's staff has advanced several others that are now at varying stages of completion.

The Cedar-Spoon project in the North Fork Flathead drainage is about 50 percent complete, with Plum Creek Timber Co. working on 940 acres with a projected yield of about 5.5 million board feet of timber. The project also involves prescribed burning on a total of 600 acres.

The Trail Fuel project, last estimated to be 30 percent complete, involves thinning on 335 acres and prescribed burning on a little more than 1,000 acres in the Trail Creek area of the North Fork drainage. Stillwater Logging is the contractor for the project, which is expected to yield 1.4 million board feet.

"We have a lot of wildland urban interface on the Hungry Horse and Glacier View districts," DeHerrera said. "So these types of projects have been the focus of our work for probably the last seven years."

When the 9th Circuit issued its ruling in December, the Hungry Horse Ranger District was on the verge of approving a project under the categorical exclusion rule involving fuels reduction on about 1,000 acres near West Glacier.

The project will now have to go through a more detailed environmental review, DeHerrera said.

The Swan Lake Ranger District has also been engaged for years in fuel reduction work.

The East Shore project, involving thinning on about 600 acres and prescribed fire on 1,120 acres on the forested slopes above Flathead Lake's Yellow Bay, was derived from a detailed study developed by fire ecologist Steve Barrett.

"It's been almost 10 years in the making," Swan Lake District Ranger Steve Brady said.

The project was approved under the categorical exclusion rule in 2004, and is now more than 30 percent finished by Pyramid Mountain Lumber out of Seeley Lake, Brady said. It is expected to produce about 4 million board feet of timber, and was developed with extensive involvement from private landowners along Flathead Lake's east shore.

"Just to get access, we had to go through private landowners along the orchard front that's down there," Brady said. "Landowners were real cooperative with giving us access permits, partly because they valued getting the treatments done."

The district is close to finishing a fuels project on 333 acres near private lands in the Condon area, and it is about 30 percent finished with another project on national forest lands near the town of Swan Lake. Combined, they are expected to produce more than 5 million board feet of timber.

Other categorical-exclusion fuels projects on the Flathead Forest include a 124-acre project in the Beaver Lake area on the Tally Lake District.

Even if the projects are halted by an injunction, Flathead Forest officials say they will do what's necessary to continue with an emphasis on fuel reduction work.

"It is a national priority," said DeHerrera. "And then you look at the Flathead Forest, and there is a lot of wildland urban interface. Another reason is we've had a lot of large-fire activity since 2001, so it really emphasizes the need for this kind of work."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com