Reintroducing fire into the forests
The U.S. Forest Service presented a preliminary project of introducing fire back into the ecosystem at the November Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative (KVRI) meeting.
“We are trying to simulate what would have naturally occurred,” said Lee Colson, USFS Fuels Technician at the Bonners Ferry Ranger District. “Put fire back into the environment...in every drainage going up the Selkirks.”
Between 1885 and 1929, approximately 209,000 acres burned in Boundary County. Between 1930 and 2010, approximately 29,000 acres burned. According to Colson, the Forest Service started having an impact on fire management in 1930.
Pat Behrens, USFS silviculturist, mentioned that south-facing slopes average 35-40 year fire intervals, with a range of 15-75 years in some areas.
“Let’s not let it get to 80 years before we do it again,” said Behrens.
Colson identified the areas that were burnt between 1885 and 1930 for potential burns. Almost every south-facing slope in each drainage of the Selkirks has been burnt. In the Purcells, the Keno Mountain burn of 1931 was also identified as a potential burn site along with areas from American Mountain to the Canadian border.
In the Cabinets, which have not seen a lot of fire in the last 80 years, potential areas include the south-facing slope below Katka Peak down to Boulder Creek and the east side of the Boulder Meadows.
“We are talking about burning small sections of a big block,” said Colson. Further analysis of each area will occur to see where fire will be the most beneficial.
The benefits of the burns would be returning fire to the environment, protecting the Wildland Urban Interface in some areas, limiting potential fire growth by reducing fuel, treating areas impractical to log and creating winter range for deer, elk and moose.
Colson mentioned that when a fire starts in a drainage in the Selkirks, it tends to go down towards the valley, wrap around the face of the next ridge to the north and continue up the next drainage. Fires typically work their way northward due to prevailing southerly winds.
“What can we do to affect the worst case scenario?” said Colson. “Reality is logging is down, the forest is growing and fuel is building up.”
“We know fire is a big missing ingredient,” said Behrens. “Colson has 40,000 acres identified. We need to incorporate it with other treatments. There are a lot of good things that could happen.”
“Most of this is not harvestable,” said Colson. “We don’t want to impact places that could have a return [on timber].”
Behrens mentioned that the timber may not be harvestable because of the ground and lack of access. Rocky slopes aren’t ideal for trees to grow and in some areas it is impractical to get a road put in.
“We would be looking at a mixture of things, harvest here...burn here,” said Behrens. “It’s more of an approach of using fire to get to where we want to be with forest health.”
In other news at the KVRI meeting, the McArthur Lake Corridor Project is moving forward with a committee being formed to look at what other options besides a bridge that would address the wildlife collision problems.
Also, the Smith Creek/Boundary Creek Working Group is considering increasing spring habitat for goslings and other waterfowl by grazing, harvesting hay or mowing parts of the grassland areas. One proposal is to have a trial to compare the effect of grazing, haying, mowing, burning and doing nothing on the wildlife.
Lastly, the USFWS will be investigating whether or not it is prudent to designate critical habitat for caribou in the Selkirk Mountains. Their decision will be made by November 2011.