Land Board approves 647-acre sale at Beaver Lake

The state Land Board last week approved a timber sale aimed at managing the forest, while still protecting recreation use in the Beaver Lake area on the Stillwater State Forest.

The Beaver Lake timber sale project area is about 4 miles northwest of Whitefish and includes 647 acres of logging,

In addressing the Land Board, Shawn Thomas, DRNC Trust Lands Administrator, said the timber project is an example of balancing recreation and timber management, while generating revenue for the state.

“We’re proud of how we got to this,” Thomas said. “There was once an overall fear in the [Whitefish] community that DNRC was in the business of subdividing this pristine land that was being used by the public. We created the Whitefish Neighborhood plan because we wanted to have consistent conservation values where we would get money through the trust by not developing the land and still maintain a working forest to maintain a steady stream of income back into the trust.”

The timber project is part of the area included in the Whitefish Area Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan, which was approved in 2004 and aims to generate revenue for DNRC, through recreation in the forest, and still allowing forest management to occur also generating revenue.

Dave Ring, Stillwater Unit Manger, points out that the Beaver Lake timber sale is the first timber project where DNRC is managing the forest within and adjacent to the Beaver Lakes Area Public Recreation Use Easement that was finalized in 2015.

“This timber sale is a good first step in demonstrating how good forest management and recreation can coincide with one another,” Ring said. “There was a lot of public outreach that came with this to really address concerns.”

Ring noted that the timber sale also involved a lot of planning with Whitefish Legacy Partners, which maintains the Whitefish Trail, and the City of Whitefish, which holds the recreation use easement.

The estimated minimum bid for the Beaver Lake timber sale project is about $691,000, according to DNRC. The sale will generate revenue for the School Trusts Forest Improvement Fund accounts as part of DNRC’s annual timber harvest targets. The project is estimated to produce more than 4 million board feet of timber.

The Beaver Lake timber sale is one of two timber sales planned under the larger Beaver-to-Boyle Timber Sale Project that calls for a total of 897 acres of timber harvest. Tree planting would also occur on up to 200 acres.

The Beaver Lake sale will likely go out for bid next month and road work could occur in May with the earliest logging beginning this fall. The Boyle Lake sale is expected to go before the state Land Board for a vote in March and then go out for sale after that.

Ring said public outreach is planned so recreation users are aware of the logging projects, he noted, and meetings will be held with the companies bidding on the project to ensure that they area aware of how the project will be executed in areas around the Whitefish Trail.

The Stillwater Forest recently released the final environmental analysis for the Beaver-to-Boyle Timber Sale Project, which includes both timber sale project areas. The forest found that it will not have significant impacts and concerns raised during the review process will be addressed through mitigations.

Ring said it is imperative recreation and forest management continue to coincide to keep the local lumber infrastructure viable, deliver revenue for the state Trust Land beneficiaries, and provide quality wildlife habitat, while continuing to provide the public recreational opportunities in the highly used area.

Work as part of the larger Beaver-to-Boyle project is planned to continue through 2023.

The full Beaver-to-Boyle project, including both timber sales, is estimated to include up to 6.5 million board feet of timber harvest and estimated to generate up to $1.75 million for the State Trusts.

The Beaver-to-Boyle timber sale as a whole is aimed at improvement of the forest and growth maintenance, removal treatment is designed to reduce fuel loads in the Wildland Urban Interface while introducing a new age class of timber to the area and improving growth of existing trees.

DNRC is planning to reconstruct under 1 mile of road for the project and more than 15 miles of road maintenance is called for. Access to the project will be through state and county roads.

Review of the timber project began with a scoping notice in 2018, and followed with a field tour of the project area.

The project received 12 comments from organizations and individuals with concerns regarding the project.

One concern was about disrupting recreation in the area and safety in high recreational use areas. The concern was addressed as part of the project, according to DNRC, by timing of operations when recreational use is less — logging is set to occur from October to March — and by providing notifications of when work is occurring.

A portion of the Beaver Lake timber sale includes the Whitefish Trail section that runs from the Beaver Lake trailhead to around Woods Lake, Dollar Lake and Little Beaver Lake.

The timber project was designed to buffer the trail system from the main harvest areas, according to DNRC, and social media and signage will be used to alert recreationists when logging activity is taking place.

In addition, a proposed future section of the Whitefish Trail as part of the Close the Loop project is planned for the Boyle Lake timber project area, and thus DNRC plans to vary the retention of trees in that area to reduce some negative aesthetics effects, in addition to planting a mosaic of trees to reduce the visual impact.

There was also concerns about clearcutting occurring, and none is planned as part of the timber project.