Shoshone National Forest

USDA Forest Service
Shoshone National Forest
808 Meadowlane Ave
Cody, WY 82414
307-527-6241

Telephone for the
Hearing Impaired
307-578-5194

News Release

USDA Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Region
Shoshone National Forest

Contact: Gordon Warren, 307-527-6241, Dave Myers, 307-527-6241

Forest Works to Counter Carter Mountain Threats

Cody, WY (November 04, 2003)—An ambitious multi-pronged effort to reduce the threat of devastating wildfires on Carter Mountain has been launched by the Shoshone National Forest.
Through a combination of prescribed burns and mechanical treatments, including firewood cutting, salvage logging and mechanical thinning, nearly 4,000 acres will be treated to reduce fuels, create fire breaks and make it easier to suppress fires in the future. Additional benefits of the project will be to manage the road system to maintain public access while protecting wildlife, water and soil resources according to Wapiti District Ranger Dave Myers.
Crews have been putting in long days scrambling over the slopes of the mountain. Armed with cans of marking paint, they worked their way through stands of timber looking for healthy trees that haven’t been infested with beetles. These are “leave trees.” Marked with orange paint to ensure they won’t be cut during thinning and salvage operations, these trees will remain to parent a new generation of seedlings.
The project was put on a fast track this year after the forest assessed the effects of a beetle epidemic that has erupted on Carter Mountain. What the assessment team found was stunning. Just a few short years ago a green canopy of spruce, Douglas fir and lodgepole pine draped the high alpine landscape. Today the area is swathed in a gray blanket of dead and dying trees ravaged by insects.
Everyone was amazed by the change that resembled the rapid spread of a killer virus in a laboratory petri dish.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Forester Dennis Eckardt. “During the drought years the infestation simply exploded. And it isn’t just spruce beetles. We have Douglas fir and pine beetle infestations at the same time.”
Entomologist Bill Schaupp, who worked on assessing the extent of the infestations, shook his head in wonder.
“This is amazing,” he said. “Spruce infestations of this intensity are thought to occur only once in every 150 to 300 years. And to have the concurrent infestations of pine beetles and Douglas fir beetles is unprecedented.”
Another surprise is the voraciousness of the mountain pine beetle.
“This is the grim reaper,” Schaupp said.
“The mountain pine beetle typically attacks white pine species such as limber pine and whitebark pine because they do better in those species. But on Carter Mountain the beetles are moving from the limber pine into the lodgepoles.”
Schaupp notes that this isn’t simply a local phenomenon. It’s happening all over the West from California to Colorado and Montana. Although the drought undoubtedly plays a role in the scenario, no one really knows what is causing the massive infestations.
On Carter Mountain, fire managers see a deadly potential for intense wildfires. The natural accumulation of fuels, exacerbated by years of drought and thousands of beetle-killed trees, has created a tinderbox. Further fanning fire managers’ concerns is the fact that Carter Mountain lies on a southwest alignment – right in line with prevailing southwest winds.
The pattern for wildfires on Carter Mountain has now changed, according to North Zone Fire Management Officer Clint Dawson. Historically, most fires were low-intensity surface blazes with a less than a 50 percent chance of having a fast moving and more intense crown fire, Dawson said. “Now that pattern has flipped and crown fires will likely predominate.”
Once needles fall off the beetle-killed trees, the potential for crown fires will be reduced. But another problem is on the horizon. Within five to ten years the dead trees will begin falling and create a nightmarish jackstraw of tinder dry fuel that would burn ferociously and make it impossible for firefighters to access or work in the area.
To counter these threats the forest has embarked on a vegetation treatment plan outlined in a recent Decision Notice on an Environmental Assessment signed by Forest Supervisor Becky Aus.
Prescribed burns will reduce fuels on 1,440 acres. Another 1,240 acres will be thinned mechanically, and an additional 1,244 acres will be treated with a combination of salvage logging and thinning. The salvage operation is expected to produce about 15 million board feet of saw timber, house logs and firewood.
“The focus is on removing and reducing the hazardous fuels up there and improving our capabilities to fight fires when they do occur,” Myers said.
“The treatment areas are strategically located to create three major fire breaks on Carter Mountain and to create better access for firefighters,” Dawson said. “We can expect less extreme fire behavior after the prescribed burns and mechanical treatments are completed.”
The fuels reduction plan is designed to reduce fuels in an interconnected line of strategically located fuel breaks throughout the area. This will allow fire crews to contain the growth of fires along the boundary between the forest and private lands on the north and east.
Another goal of the project is to manage the roads to reduce impacts on wildlife, water and soils while still allowing public access. Nearly 17 miles of road will be maintained for public access. Four miles will be suitable for passenger car, and the remaining five miles will be suitable for high clearance vehicles. These roads will be seasonably closed for wildlife and watershed protection.
Approximately 16 miles of non-system roads, which are not on the forest transportation system and are not needed for management purposes, will be decommissioned to reduce impacts on wildlife, water and soils.
Myers said an ATV loop would be constructed to connect existing roads so that travelers will be able to drive two new loops.
Part of the commercial salvage sale has been advertised, and another portion is scheduled to be advertised by the end of January.
Time is critical for harvesting merchantable timber, Eckardt said, because beetle-killed trees soon begin to deteriorate, making them less suitable for lumber.
Spruce trees start to check after two years. Douglas fir check within three to four years, and lodgepole pine check within five years.
“We need to harvest spruce by the summer of 2005 if it’s going to be used for lumber,” Eckardt said. “After that the trees will still be suitable for house logs or other products.”
Work on the project could start by this fall.