Plan to Protect Forest Lands 
May Include 'Helispots'

BY DONNA SMITH, Black Hills Pioneer
July 29, 2002

SPEARFISH - The Black Hills Fire Prevention agreement passed by Congress last week will allow forest thinning in areas of the Black Hills National Forest and adds 3,600 more acres of wilderness area.
The agreement includes provisions for minimally invasive entry into roadless areas of the Beaver Park and Norbeck Wildlife Preserve areas for the purpose of forest management. While the pristine quality of the forested areas will be protected as much as possible, the agreement does include space for helicopters to land with firefighters and equipment if necessary.

Over the weekend, Interior Secretary Gale Norton grumbled publicly that the plan may go beyond what the Bush administration would have proffered in terms of environmental impacts. But the agreement which was added to the Supplemental Defense Appropriations bill in conference committee action taken 10 days ago and passed by Congress last week is expected to be signed by President Bush this week, according to a spokesperson for Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

Daschle has touted the agreement as unique in the nation because of the negotiations that took place this spring in South Dakota to bring environmental groups, government agencies and forest managers together to agree on a plan that would prevent further legal challenges to forest thinning. The fire season and drought intensified the urgency of elected officials to act, and the Grizzly Gulch Fire put an exclamation point on the plan.

In the Beaver Park Roadless Area, the agreement will allow improvement of designated forest roads by "removing selected trees along roads, constructing pull-outs and turn-arounds, smoothing road surfaces in rough spots and straightening some corners." The roads specifically identified in the agreement are Forest Roads 139.1, 169.1b, 169.1d and 139.1b. The agreement goes on to state that the road improvements "shall be the minimum necessary for crews, equipment and single axle wildfire trucks."

If openings, or clearings, for helicopter landings are not sufficient in the Beaver Park Roadless Area, the agreement authorizes the construction of two five-acre "helispots" within the area. Four hundred fuel breaks may also be established.

Tom Smith of the U.S. Forest Service office in Spearfish believes the toughest part of the new agreement will be getting contracts in place to do the work. "There aren't enough people available. The people who we would contract to do this work are fighting fires," Smith said.

He said the priorities nationally have been altered this year by the number of fires early in the season throughout the western U.S.

The agreement also allows timber sales to proceed stating "the standards to which any road is constructed for the timber sale (Needles and Grizzly) shall be the minimum necessary to access and remove timber."

These sales will require modification of the 1999 Burns/Carter memorandum which included provisions regarding game animals and birds within the timber sale areas. The Secretary of Agriculture will be responsible for making these modifications.

Additional timber treatment is allowed within or outside the existing cutting areas for Piedmont, Kirk, Redhill, Cavern, Deadman, Danno and Vanocker timber sales areas as is necessary to reduce beetle infestation and fire hazard. The agreement also allows the use of "skid trails" to access areas to be treated but requires those trails to be fully restored following use.

The agreement charges the Secretary of Agriculture "shall use best efforts to retain the largest green trees and large snags."

In the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve the agreement authorizes the full spectrum of forest management tools, "including prescribed fire and sivicultural treatments to benefit game animal and bird habitat."

Additionally, the Secretary of Agriculture is to work with the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks to monitor the effects of forest management activities, consult on habitat management, concur on program areas of responsibility, and recommend any needed changes to Norbeck Wildlife Preserve direction contained in the 1997 Forest Plan.

The agreement also includes 3,600 additional acres added to the Black Elk Wilderness in the national forest. A map of the additional wildereness area will be released as soon as the president signs the agreement, according to a spokesperson for Black Hills National Forest Supervisor John Twiss.