A group of Bonner County residents oppose timber sale proposed by IDFG

A group of Bonner county residents who do not want to see a stand of healthy, mature Western Red Cedars logged have organized in an attempt to stop the timber sale. The group, which calls itself “Friends of the Sunnyside Cedars”, is currently requesting that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, who owns the 52-acre parcel, reconsider its plans to log the tract in early 2017.

The parcel under scrutiny is located east of Sandpoint on the Sunnyside Peninsula, which juts out from the northern shore of Lake Pend Oreille and forms the eastern boundary of Oden Bay. Because it is surrounded by privately owned land, the IDFG had, until recently, been unable to access the landlocked cedar grove. This has been addressed, as the department has secured a temporary right-of-way easement that passes through a neighbor’s property on the southside of the parcel.

Ali Hakala, whose property abuts Fish and Game’s parcel, founded Friends of the Sunnyside Cedars (FSC) after noticing trees marked by state officials during one of her regular jaunts in the forest.

For Hakala and the rest of the FSC, this unique grove of Western Red Cedars has a certain intrinsic value that is worth more than what the state department would gain from cutting them down. Members of the group also believe that logging these cedars is impractical from a forest management perspective.

Hakala represented the FSC in a public meeting held by the Fish and Game Commission on Nov. 16, delivering a testimony that explained why the timber sale should be reconsidered. Hakala argued that there will be severe impacts from logging this parcel, including: loss of wildlife habitat, increased mortality of remaining trees, heightened fire danger and probable storm blowdown.

Hakala also pointed to the IDFG’s own Pend Oreille Wildlife Management Area (POWMA) Plan, since the tract is within the Pend Oreille Wildlife Managament Area. The POWMA plan explicitly states that in order to “provide diverse and resilient stands of mixed age-class conifer forest habitat in good to excellent ecological condition to benefit a variety of wildlife species,” one of the department’s strategies is to “protect old-growth and mature trees or stands from human disturbance, such as road and trail building, commercial logging, etc.”

In order to educate herself, and to better understand the value of the 52-acre parcel from a forester’s perspective, Hakala invited Jeff Pennick, a recently retired Forest Service silviculturist with 43 years of wildland fire experience, to assess the forest.

Pennick, who is a firm supporter of responsible forest management but does not believe that every piece of forest needs to be under intensive management, says that he believes this is a unique stand — in his words: “a classic cedar and western hemlock site.”

Pennick is of the opinion that thinning out the stand, which is made up predominantly of mature, large diameter Western Red Cedars, would increase the risk of fire in the area.

“The proposed harvest is a shelterwood cut,” he explains, “which will open the stand up for natural regeneration. By opening the stand there is an increased risk of fire due to the increase in understory vegetation creating ladder fuels and the effects of drying winds. It will also increase the risk for windthrow since cedars have large crowns and are not very wind firm.”

After studying the parcel from all angles, and especially from the technical perspective of a forest manager, Pennick shared his conclusions with the Herald: “I believe this stand is much more valuable left intact than converted to a multi-aged, mixed species stand like the surrounding landscape.”

IDFG wildlife habitat biologist Miles Benker disagrees. Benker, who manages many of the IDFG’s other parcels within the Pend Oreille Wildlife Management Area, thinks that the stand can and should be managed, and he believes that thinning is fundamental to proper forest management.

In a letter that was written by Benker and IDFG regional supervisor Chip Corsi and sent to the neighboring landowners, the department states: “The habitat values on this parcel are commonly found in the Panhandle, and we have no evidence that it is critical habitat for any unique or rare wildlife species.”

Benker also wants to emphasize that “the money generated [by the sale] will go back into on-the-ground projects to benefit wildlife in the panhandle region.” He says that “the funds will help us improve the other properties in the Pend Oreille Wildlife Management Area.”

One contentious issue that has been settled, according to Benker, is the classification of the cedar grove as an old-growth forest. Benker says that since the stand was logged in the 1950’s, it does not meet the qualifications for old-growth.

However, Pennick believes that most of the trees could easily live for another 200 years or more, and that “it has the potential to become an old-growth stand.”

It is this word, “potential”, that creates the biggest divide between the proponents of the timber sale and those opposing it. The IDFG sees the potential benefits of logging this parcel, as it would fund other important projects in the panhandle that would not be implemented otherwise, whereas people like Hakala see the long-term potential of what the forest could become if preserved.

“We are losing cedars on more marginal habitat throughout the Panhandle,” Hakala says. “But this old grove is in a unique position to last many, many generations. We have the opportunity to preserve it.”

Benker says that IDFG will continue listening to the concerns of neighboring landowners, and he wants to assure everyone on both sides that “nothing is final at this point.” He says that they are still in the preliminary phase of planning, and “the earliest anything could occur is May or June.”