For the week of December 24 - 30, 2003

Pine beetle battle
takes a new tack

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To get involved:

To learn more about the mountain pine beetle or the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed methods for affected areas, contact Dave Fluetsch at SNRA headquarters north of Ketechum at 727-5001.

To comment on the Forest Service’s proposed proactive treatment of "high value" trees in developed areas, write to: Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Attn. Dave Fluetsch, HC 64, Box 8241, Ketchum, ID 83340.

To be most helpful, comments should be submitted by Jan. 20.

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Opening a new chapter in an ongoing effort to combat invading mountain pine beetles in the forests of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, forest managers are proposing to chemically spray "high value" trees in developed recreation sites that have not yet been hard hit by the native insects.

Logging is only one means public land managers are using to combat the effects of mountain pine beetles on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. If a new environmental study is approved, trees in developed recreation sites could be sprayed preemptively to protect from predicted invasions. Express photo by Greg Stahl

"We’re trying to anticipate the spread of the beetle and have our treatment options available, rather than reacting," said Dave Fluetsch, the project’s team leader. "We’re just trying to be prepared."

The mountain pine beetle, an insect about the size of a grain of rice, has coexisted with fire in lodgepole pine ecosystems for thousands of years.

During mountain pine beetle outbreaks, mature, even-aged lodgepole pine stands like those on the SNRA can experience widespread tree mortality, killing up to 1 million trees each year.

Under the plan, which is designed to save trees that have not yet been killed by the beetles, sites proposed for treatment are located throughout the Sawtooth Valley and northern Wood River Valley. In the Wood River Valley there are spotty populations of susceptible lodgepole pine trees within a larger community of predominately Douglas fir trees.

Lodgepole pine trees surrounding Galena Lodge, Easley Campground, Cathedral Pines summer camp and Baker Creek campground are cited as potential treatment areas.

"The mountain pine beetle epidemic that is currently killing thousands of trees on the SNRA is of such a scale and intensity that it leaves us with very little time to respond to attacks in new areas," Fluetsch said.

For that reason, the Forest Service is proposing to conduct a large-scale environmental review of recreation sites and private properties and facilities throughout the SNRA. In theory, treatments would precede beetle infestations, and environmental reviews for individual sites will have already been covered under the proposed review.

But only developed recreation sites are proposed for treatments. Because individual trees must be treated, a forest-wide plan can not be pulled off, Fluetsch said.

"The window to treat these trees is very short," he said. "There is much we have learned from similar, recent treatment projects that we can apply to one thorough, area-wide analysis. Our hope is that we will then be able to apply our resources to timely treatment and monitoring efforts instead of repeating similar analyses for each new treatment site."

If the environmental study affirms the proposed actions as viable management tools, Fluetsch said action could be taken as early as the fall of 2004.

If that is the case, the new tools would be added to an existing arsenal that is designed to treat areas that have already been afflicted by the beetles.

In August, following a year-long environmental review, former SNRA Area Ranger Deb Cooper signed an environmental assessment called the Red Tree Fuels Reduction Project, which calls for the harvest of an estimated 3.3 million board feet of insect infested lodgepole pine forests in the Sawtooth Valley and Stanely Basin over five years.

The harvest is designed to combat the fire danger created when the pine beetles killed thousands of acres of lodgepole pine trees.

The strategy targets approximately 24,655 acres for fuel reduction treatments, primarily around private homes and public recreation sites.

 

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