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For the week of February 5 - 11, 2003

News

Forest Service to plant intensely burned area


By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

The U.S. Forest Service is taking steps to speed up the natural processes at work in an area that was charred during Idaho’s hot and dry 2000 fire season.

Approximately 950 acres of the 6,700-acre Rankin Creek burn area in the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River canyon are scheduled to be planted in the coming year and a half. The Rankin Creek fire, a lightning-caused wildfire that burned out of control in thick stands of lodgepole pine for more than a week in August 2000, smoked out rafters on the upper Salmon River and forced two Sunbeam-based rafting companies to close shop for several days.

The fire began when a lightning bolt struck the tinder-dry trees in Rankin Creek, a tributary of the Yankee Fork.

"The places we’re going to plant are like total clear cuts," said Sharon Bradley, Challis Ranger District timber management officer. "We’re going to plant in areas larger than 1,000 acres where the trees are totally nuked off."

Bradley said it would take the trees 17 years to grow back under natural circumstances, and planting the areas will prevent accelerated erosion, landslides or sedimentation in the area’s creeks and river in the meantime.

"The bulk of the project area is located on steep slopes and, where soils are derived from rhyolite, prone to sliding," said forester Dave Faike, the project’s manager.

Second, the planting is needed to shorten the duration of visual impacts associated with completely denuded, high intensity burn areas that are visible from the Custer Motorway, a popular scenic drive that accesses nearby historic ghost towns and a restored mining dredge.

The Yankee Fork of the Salmon River canyon is home to many developed and undeveloped campsites and is also popular among hunters, anglers, hikers, boaters and recreational miners, said Faike.

Yet another benefit derived from planting the area will be restoration of wildlife cover and forage habitat.

"Trees provide both hiding and thermal cover for a variety of wildlife," Faike said.

Lodgepole pine seedlings will be planted every 12 inches in six areas within the burn that experienced high intensity wildfire. Approximately 303 trees will be planted per acre.

This spring and summer, 67,100 seedlings and 134,400 one-year-old container grown "plugs" will be planted. In the spring of 2004, another 85,500 seedlings will go in the ground.

Faike said planting crews would walk the burn areas and use hand tools to plant. Planting is scheduled to occur on May 15 and July 1 this summer but could change because of weather.

First year survival is expected to be in the 90 percent range, and second-year survival should be around 80 percent, Faike said.

 

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