Road storage compliance project eyed

The Idaho Panhandle National Forests is proposing the Grouse Bear Management Unit Compliance Project in order to comply with the Grizzly Bear Access Amendment adopted in 2011. The compliance project would affect an area near McArthur Lake east of Highway 95 and northwest of Lunch Peak known as the Grouse Bear Management Unit.

The amendment was created in 2011 in order to aid grizzly recovery efforts, but it did not authorize any physical changes or projects at the time. It simply set standards for motorized access within specific areas that the supervisors identified as grizzly bear recovery zones. These zones are all within the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak mountain range, and one such zone exists in the Grouse Creek watershed southeast of Bonners Ferry.

The compliance project seeks to implement the standards that were mandated in 2011, Bonners Ferry District Ranger Kevin Knauth told the Herald.

“We are required to meet standards put forth in that document by 2019 and we’re doing this analysis in order to meet those standards.”

In effect, meeting those standards means reducing the amount of motorized roads in the Grouse Bear Managament Unit as well as re-routing certain sections of existing roads. Forest supervisors, rangers and others involved with the compliance project hope that these changes will increase the amount of viable grizzly bear habitat in the area.

According to a press release from the U.S. Forest Service, they are proposing to store approximately 29 miles of road in the area, only 7.9 of which are currently open to the public. Storing roads effectively mean removing culverts and blocking off the roads so they remain impassable for at least ten years. The roads, however, would remain part of the State’s transportation system and could be reopened in the future. Access for wildfire protection and future timber sales are two of the primary reasons the roads would be stored rather than decommissioned entirely, Knauth says.

The project also includes a proposal to re-route a section of Grouse Creek Road that is prone to flooding, which would reduce maintenance costs and increase the safety of drivers on the road. Reducing the amount of sediment that washes into Grouse Creek is another added bonus of the proposed re-route, since high amounts of sediment in the creek have been known to adversely affect the spawning and rearing habitat for native bull trout.

According to the USFS press release, “The proposed road storage activities are anticipated to begin in the summer or fall of 2017 and to continue for approximately 2 to 3 years.”

A start date for the re-route, on the other hand, is harder to predict since it would require additional funding as well as an agreement with Hancock Forest Managament and private landowners.

The Forest Service is currently accepting public comment on the project and will be until October 17. In the words of Ranger Knauth: “We are mandated to do something on these roads, but public comment can help shape exactly what we do out there.”

Please submit your comments to: Erick Walker, District Ranger, Attn: Kris Hennings, Sandpoint Ranger District; by mail, 1602 Ontario St., Sandpoint, ID 83864; or via email on the project website: comments-northern-idpanhandle-sandpoint@fs.fed.us