Project looks to improve forest health

The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest will use a mix of logging and prescribed fire to reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health on about 2,100 acres north of Elk City.

Ron Tipton, ranger of the Moose Creek District, recently approved the Green Horse Project. According to a Forest Service environmental analysis, stands in the area are dominated by shade-tolerant species like grand fir and plagued by insect infestations and diseases such as root rot. The trees are tightly bunched and there is little understory — younger trees and brush — growing beneath more mature trees.

The work, which includes regeneration harvest methods where most trees in cutting units are removed, is expected to produce 23 million board feet of timber, generate $15.4 million in labor income and sustain 510 jobs.

Forest Supervisor Cheryl Probert said dead and dying trees and trees susceptible to insect and disease infestations will be logged, as will trees that threaten to fall across roads. The area will then be replanted with species like larch, ponderosa pine, whitepine, Englemann spruce and western red cedar.

The work will help protect 

Elk City and private property along the lower Selway River. The area is within the Selway River basin and just north of a divide that separates the Selway from the American River basin. Probert noted two fires burned above the lower Selway in 2015 and threatened homes and rural homes there.

“The overarching goal is reducing fuels and improving forest conditions,” she said. “We are also taking the opportunity to do some infrastructure improvements and watershed improvements.”

Most of the Green Horse Project sits within a “fireshed” for which the forest is receiving funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce wildfire risk. In January, the Biden Administration included 1.8 million acres of the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest among 11 forested landscapes across the country eligible to split $490 million aimed at addressing what the agency calls the wildfire crises.

Probert said the area is now at risk of big, high-intensity fires. Because of that, forest managers have little chance to manage natural fires when they start and instead must pounce on them.

After the work, fire will be able to resume a more natural role.

“If we have areas with lower tree density it is easier for (firefighters) to keep the fire on the ground and keep it from becoming a running crown fire,” she said. “We can return to a more natural fire interval with low-intensity, high-frequency fires.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.