By Ann McCreary
In light of severe erosion and landslides after thunderstorms last summer, conservation organizations have raised questions about plans to log dead trees in areas burned by the Carlton Complex Fire.
The Methow Valley Citizens Council (MVCC) and Conservation Northwest have asked the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to re-evaluate its conclusion that a proposed salvage logging project would not increase the potential for slope failures and erosion.
DNR proposes the sale of approximately 6.8 million board feet of timber on state land located off Texas Creek and Vinton roads about four miles east of Carlton, and on DNR land south of the Loup Loup summit.
The sale would involve 1,285 acres of DNR land burned in the Carlton Complex Fire last July. An estimate 304 feet of roads would be constructed for the logging operation, according to the project description, and 83,788 feet of roads would undergo maintenance.
The Carlton Fire FIT Salvage Timber Sale proposes an auction date of Jan. 27, with work to be concluded by July 31, 2015, according to a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) checklist completed by DNR. The agency announced the proposed sale in December.
FIT stands for Forest Improvement Treatment and the project would use revenues from the timber sale to help pay to replant trees in the burned areas, said Robert Hechinger, proprietary forester for DNR’s northeast region in Colville.
Because it is a salvage operation, “we’re only harvesting dead and dying trees,” said Hechinger. “In areas where live trees remain, all of the live trees will remain.”
DNR plans to leave at least six trees per acre in areas where all trees were killed by the intense wildfires.
“That is the worst-case scenario,” Hechinger said. “There may very well be more than six trees per acre. The fire did not burn uniformly through the area. In areas where every tree was killed, and there are plenty of areas, we’re taking it down to six snags — the largest ponderosa pines we can leave,” Hechinger said.
After completing an environmental checklist required for the project, DNR issued a statement on Dec. 17 concluding that the project would not have significant adverse impacts on the environment. The determination of non-significance stipulated that the logging project would be mitigated by not working in riparian and wetland management zones except where necessary for road construction.
In comments submitted to DNR, however, MVCC and Conservation Northwest said the agency failed to adequately evaluate the possibility that logging around Carlton and the Loup Loup summit could increase erosion and debris flows in drainages in those areas.
DNR: no instability
In its checklist, DNR said it found no history of unstable soils or evidence of slope failures in sub-basins included in the project area: “No surface indications of unstable soils are known to exist within the proposal. The majority of the soil types contained within the proposal have low to medium erosion potential and insignificant to low mass wasting potential.”
“Mass wasting” is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as “the process involving movement of mantlerock that is controlled directly by gravity and that includes such gradual movements as creep and solifluction and such rapid movements as produce rockfalls, landslides, and mudflows.”
“In light of the mass wasting events we witnessed during the late summer and fall of 2014” DNR’s conclusion regarding erosion potential in the vicinity of the proposed logging is “indisputably incorrect,” said Maggie Coon, chairman of MVCC in comments submitted to DNR.
MVCC was referring to floods and mudslides following thunderstorms in August that caused extensive damage to homes, properties and highways around Benson, Leecher, Canyon and Frazer drainages.
MVCC cited the Burned Area Emergency Response report issued after the Carlton Complex Fire, which identified “areas of severely burned and hydrophobic [water-resistant] soils within and adjacent to the proposed sale area that are expected to have increased vulnerability to erosion, mass wasting or flash flood events for years to come.”
“The preparers of the SEPA Checklist seem to have no idea that this area recently experienced severe debris flows, and mass soil movement following the Carlton Complex fire, as well as at least four debris flows that crossed Highway 153 before the fire,” wrote George Wooten, a staff member of Conservation Northwest.
“The failure to discuss mass wasting potential is a serious omission,” Wooten said.
A map submitted by Conservation Northwest shows proposed logging sites located along Texas Creek, the north fork of Texas Creek, Leecher Canyon and Cow Creek.
Wooten said a debris flow that caused extensive damage in Finley Canyon originated partly on DNR land included in the proposal.
In December, “rain-on-snow events resulted in more damage to homes and roads,” Wooten said. “Had the area been salvage-logged prior to this rain-on-snow event, the damage could have been worse.”
Conservation Northwest said salvage logging would remove standing dead trees that help slow or stop debris flows by capturing the debris as it moves down slope.
Questions raised
DNR’s checklist stated that district staff and a geologist had visited the proposed logging sites in September and November and “determined that there were no visual indications of unstable slopes within the proposal area. Planer and convergent slopes greater than 60 percent will not have timber harvested or equipment operating on them.”
The majority of the sale is on slopes of 30 percent or less, DNR said. “There is potential for some minimal erosion to occur as a result of road maintenance and harvest activities associated with the proposal,” DNR said.
MVCC and Conservation Northwest also asked DNR to address potential impacts from erosion or runoff on threatened and endangered salmon populations. They also requested further information about road and culvert improvements, plans to seed disturbed areas with grass, and plans for replanting the harvested areas.
Wooten said Conservation Northwest also questions whether a Forest Improvement Treatment project can be conducted as part of a salvage logging operation.
Hechinger said DNR is preparing a response to comments received from MVCC, Conservation Northwest and other interested parties.
“I know there’s a lot of erosion from the severity of the burn, from the comments I’ve seen. We hope to do it [complete the responses] as soon as we can because the quality of the wood is deteriorating and becomes less valuable every day,” Hechinger said. “We envision having it [the salvage logging] done by summer.”
He said the money generated by the sale would help DNR replant the area, primarily with ponderosa pine. About 300 trees would be planted per acre, Hechinger said.
DNR said the project would also provide revenue for the Common School Trust; retain trees for wildlife cover and habitat; increase overall health of the stands; and reduce vulnerability to insects, disease and future fires.
DNR held another salvage sale of 1,108 acres last month in the Chiliwist area, Hechinger said.
He said the proposed salvage operation in the Methow Valley is the only one DNR will conduct in response to the Carlton Complex Fire. “It’s a unique sale,” he said.
In related news, Ski trail closed in USFS timber salvage area.
