USFS project aims to restore whitebark pine

CLARK FORK — The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comment on a plan to restore whitebark pine and whitebark pine habitat in the Lightning Creek drainage.

The Forest Service aims to achieve those goals through prescribed burns and thinning on 3,534 acres of forest.

Prescribed burning would be spread across 10 project units encompassing 2,885 acres. Thinning and slashing small trees with diameters of 7 inches or less would occur on 577 acres, which reduces competition for water and sunlight from other nearby conifers.

Additional prescribed burning and pruning would occur on another 102 acres to favor whitebark pine.

Application of prescribed fire would primarily be accomplished through aerial ignition with a helicopter, although there would be some hand ignition in strategic locations.

Successful fire suppression efforts from 1932 to 1988 and non-native blister rust disease have led to declines in whitebark pine, also known as scrub or creeping pine.

The decline of whitebark pine has warranted its candidacy for listing as a threatened species with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Phil Hough, executive director of Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, welcomes the project to restore whitebark pine and its habitat.

“It’s had a great loss in its range throughout the West,” Hough said. “It’s a defining species of the higher elevations of the Northern Rocky Mountains.”

In addition to being an indicator species, whitebark pine is also integrated into the ecology of Clark’s nutcrackers, Hough said. The ashy-gray birds with black and white wings are the primary seed disperser for whitebark pine.

Whitebark pine is also an important source of food for grizzly bear, black bear and red squirrel.

The restoration project is part of the Treasured Landscapes program, a collaboration between the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation.

Approximately 88  percent of the work areas are within inventoried roadless areas, according to a scoping notice drafted by Sandpoint District Ranger Erick Walker. None of the timber culled from those areas will be sold or removed.

The deadline to comment is Jan. 16, 2015. Written comments should be directed to Project Leader Sara Sink, USFS, 1602 Ontario, Sandpoint, ID. 83864. Comments may also be emailed to sarassink@fs.fed.us.