Last winter's strong storms left a splintered footprint in sections of the Sawtooth National Forest, where otherwise healthy trees snapped under the weight of heavy snow.
Ketchum District Ranger Kurt Nelson said crews from the Sawtooth National Forest and volunteers from Big Wood Backcountry Trails removed 146 downed trees in the Corral Creek area—one of the harder hit sections—in one week this spring. Corral Creek is located northeast of Sun Valley off Trail Creek Road.
"They've been working like busy beavers," Nelson said.
He said most of the damage came from a powerful storm cycle in December.
"There was a heavy snow load, and probably a little rain on top of it, and it created a situation where we had trees snapping and tipping over," Nelson said.
Most of the damage was confined to elevations below 7,500 feet, he added.
Now the Forest Service is putting some of the woody debris to work. Several large, dead cottonwood trees will be used to restore sections of Corral Creek and improve fish habitat.
Nelson said the project, which will entail the use of heavy equipment, will occur later this summer.
"We're just determining what the sites are," he said. "It's a project we're putting together."
Nelson said the trees will be used to "help build some pools for fish habitat and create some structure."
Meanwhile, damaged trees are causing a separate problem in a section of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, where the effects of last summer's 40,838-acre Valley Road Fire are still being felt.
Trees damaged by the fire are still collapsing, which has prompted the Forest Service to close the Fourth of July Creek and Phyllis Lake roads to overnight camping.
"Number one is public safety," said Joe Harper, deputy area ranger for the SNRA. "This is in the heart of the area burned last year by the Valley Road wildfire. There are numerous burned trees weakened by the fire that continue to fall without warning."
Harper said the closure will also foster a healthy, speedier recovery.
"We invested a considerable amount of time and dollars in doing emergency rehabilitation work last fall in this area," he said. "Impacts from vehicles and camping equipment will destroy the fragile vegetation that is just beginning to grow in the fire area along these road corridors."
The SNRA offers numerous alternative camping sites.
The burn area is open to non-commercialized mushroom picking, but only with a free use permit.
Permits can be obtained at the Stanley Ranger Station, Redfish Lake Visitor Center or the SNRA headquarters north of Ketchum. The limit is 10 gallons per household.
Last winter's heavy snow and ice storms snapped otherwise healthy lodgepole pines like toothpicks. The Forest Service will use some of the woody debris, specifically dead cottonwoods, to restore fish habitat in Corral Creek.
Photo by David N. Seelig
