Colville forest lays out plan

NEWPORT – The Colville National Forest has come out with a new proposal for managing the federal forestland over the next 15 years. The new forest plan will be the topic of a public meeting in Newport Tuesday, Aug. 2, from 5-7 p.m. at the high school.

The proposed action, released last month, outlines goals for managing the forest but does not go into details of how to achieve them. Timber harvest, proposed wilderness areas and recreation are some of the most closely watched issues.

Close to 100 people attended the first in a series of public meetings on the plan in Colville July 16. People voiced concerns about what wilderness is and how it might limit use of that land, and they brought up concerns about access to the national forest.

In the way of timber harvests, the proposal says the Colville expects to continue to produce between 25 to 35 million board feet per year. Local lumber companies are hoping for much more than that.

Russ Vaagen, vice president of Vaagen Brothers Lumber Co. and president of the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, has said their target is for the national forest to harvest 80 million board feet annually.

Some would like more details on the Colville’s new plan for timber management. Two “active restoration” areas are part of the proposal, but it doesn’t say what types of methods would be used. David Heflick of Conservation Northwest, which is also part of the forestry coalition with Vaagen Brothers, said they are supportive of restoration forestry and fuels reduction around homes and communities, but he would like to know details such as the largest size of clear-cut allowed.

The plan includes a proposed 101,000 acres of new wilderness area, expanding the Salmo-Priest Wilderness in North Pend Oreille County and creating four new areas: Profanity, Hoodoo and Bald/Snow in the Kettle Range and Abercrombie Hooknose in the Selkirk Range. Pend Oreille County commissioners are researching to see if the county’s radio site on Abercrombie Mountain is not in the proposed wilderness area.

Conservation Northwest was hoping to also include as wilderness an area known as Twin Sisters in the Kettle Crest and Thirteen Mile south of Republic. Heflick said those areas provide connectivity for wildlife and habitat for threatened species such as lynx.

While not all of the wilderness the group was after is in the proposal, Heflick believes the plan should make clear that current roadless areas should be maintained in such a way that there is no degradation of their wilderness qualities. He said it was something that the collaborative group reached a consensus on in the planning stages.
“It was an extremely important unanimous agreement we came up with,” he said.

If approved, the forest plan would not officially designate new wilderness areas. That can be done only by an act of Congress.

One of the recreation goals mentioned in the Colville proposal is keeping up with the backlog of trails on the maintenance list. It’s another goal to bring recreation close to home, locating trail systems near communities if possible.

Recreational use of the forest is projected to increase due to population growth, more retirees seeking outdoor exercise, and increased participation in activities such as snowmobiling, mountain biking and off-highway vehicle use, the proposal says. Prior planning did little to consider the needs of winter recreationists.

Comments on the proposed action should be received by Aug. 29. Written comments should be addressed to the Forest Plan Revision Team, Okanogan Valley Office, 1240 S. Second Ave., Okanogan, WA, 98840, or by e-mail to: r6_ewzplanrevision@fs.fed.us.

Learn more about the new forest plan at http://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/okawen/plan-revision.