Crews with the U.S. Forest Service have removed 31 hazard trees located in 13 camps along the upper reaches of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, the Forest Service reports.
The work makes the riverside camps available to floating parties descending the popular river section in the heart of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
According to Salmon-Challis National Forest Middle Fork District River Manager John Haugh, the crews were made up of trained specialists who only used traditional, non-motorized tools to protect the area's wilderness values.
Last summer's wildfires, which scorched nearly 40 river miles along the Middle Fork, burned through a number of the riverside camps. Altogether, 16 camps were impacted by the 2007 fires, leaving behind snags that were weakened and at a higher risk of falling in high winds or wet conditions.
Earlier this year, Salmon-Challis National Forest Supervisor Bill Wood announced that boaters would not be able to use five of the camps because of the hazardous conditions. Four of the camps are heavily used by boaters on the stretch of river above Indian Creek Guard Station.
The hazardous tree removal work took place during the week of June 9. Forest Service river rangers and hazard tree specialists floated the Middle Fork and evaluated the river camps for hazard trees, including those that resulted from 2007 wildfires, Haugh said.
Only trees identified as being an imminent threat within the next three years were selected for felling.
A total of 23 camps that were burned over last summer and are more popular and heavily used by boaters were evaluated. Crews were able to identify and remove five hazard trees at the Elkhorn and White Creek camps using traditional two-person and one-person crosscut saws and axes. This allowed these camps to be declared "reasonably safe" for river and corridor users, the Forest Service news release states.
During the week of June 16, specialized crews were flown into Indian Creek Guard Station. These crews were composed of smokejumpers from the McCall and Missoula jump bases and included experts in falling large hazard trees with traditional, non-motorized equipment.
River rangers, fire suppression fallers, packers, archeologists and fishery biologists were also part of the team. Several of the crewmembers were certified blasters.
From Indian Creek, crews were sent down and upriver to fell hazard trees. Archeologists were present at every campsite considered sensitive cultural sites to ensure the felling operations did not damage cultural resources.
Due to the sensitivity of federally endangered fish species in the Middle Fork, a fisheries biologist was also present to assist in designing blasting techniques used by the crews on several large stumps, the Forest Service news release states.
While crews were able to travel to most of the camps by trail, three were only accessible from the river. The Salmon-Challis river patrol ferried some crewmembers across the river to treat the Greyhound, Johns Camp and Lake Creek camps. These camps were initially considered too severely burned to open to the public, but are now open. Dome Hole, also initially listed as unavailable, has also been treated and is open for use.
At the completion of the hazard tree operations, the crews returned to Indian Creek Guard Station and cleared 12 large logs that were blocking the Indian Creek boat ramp. This will increase the safety of boaters launching into the river, the Forest Service reports.
Horsetail, a seldom-used camp that was burned by the 2007 Red Bluff Fire, is the only camp that remains closed because of fire-caused hazards. The area near this camp was intensely burned, especially the drainage around the camp, which puts the camp at high risk of a blowout during any localized rain events, the Forest Service reports.
Haugh said that while the operation was successful, riverside hazards still remain.
"The wilderness environment still has risks and should not be considered absolutely safe," he said. "Trees may still fall, debris flows may happen and rocks may roll off hillsides into camps."
