AHSAHKA, Idaho – Timber-harvest activities to occur throughout the remainder of the year around Dworshak Dam and Reservoir may require temporary access restrictions to some recreation areas, according to operations officials at the dam.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management’s Cottonwood Field Office, in Idaho, conducted a timber sale to help improve forest health on the lands around Dworshak Dam and Reservoir. Approximately 701 acres of timber near the dam will receive various treatments involving harvest activities.
The timber sale was purchased by 406 Timber Company out of Montana. Workers will begin mobilizing equipment in late-May and early June to the Merrys Bay area. Work will proceed to numerous selected harvest locations through the summer and autumn, and into winter months.
Natural resources staff at Dworshak advise visitors to remain alert for logging trucks and timber-harvest equipment using the roads to and from lands around the reservoir. At times, work activities may require temporary closure of access to some recreation areas and/or certain facilities. Closures will be announced as work progresses to those locations.
“Road signs will be posted to let visitors know which roads will be in use by timber-sale vehicles, said Dworshak Forester Jake Chaffee.
Visitors are encouraged to “like” and “follow” Dworshak’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/dworshakdam for news releases and facility-access updates. Visitors may also contact Dworshak’s forester at 208-476-1245 or the Dam Visitor Center at 208-476-1255 for more information.
The primary objective of this sale is to restore the forest to an expected condition had wildfire not been removed from the landscape over the past 100 years. Typically the forests surrounding Dworshak Dam and Reservoir would have experienced cool underburns approximately every seven to 25 years, according to Chaffee. Without fire on the landscape, less fire-tolerant trees survived, creating an unbalanced, overstocked, unnatural forest condition. Trees in an overstocked forest can become stressed for space, nutrients and water, creating conditions in which diseases and insects can thrive.
Dworshak Dam and Reservoir is surrounded by more than 29,000 acres of federally managed land. Maintaining a healthy forest is important for wildlife recreation and forest health.
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Release no. 18-054