Wildfires leave plenty of damage behind

COEUR d'ALENE - Wildfires across the Idaho Panhandle National Forest have burned nearly 80,000 acres as a result of 164 individual wildfires this year, and now fire managers are assessing the damage that may have to be rehabilitated.

"It is still too early to talk specifically about the types of rehabilitation or salvage that will take place, or their locations," said Mary Farnsworth, forest supervisor for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. "However, we do know that this summer's wildfires will delay some previously planned projects in order to implement any needed rehabilitation or salvage projects for the health of the forest and to provide economic benefits for local communities."

As the summer's fires are slowly being extinguished by firefighters and cooling weather, forest managers are beginning to conduct assessments of the burned areas to determine the types of ecological rehabilitation needs and economic opportunities that exist following the wildfires.

Potential actions following assessments range from short-term emergency work to stabilize hillsides and protect water quality, to longer term efforts to conduct replanting or salvage logging where feasible.

Although rapid assessments are taking place and short term emergency rehabilitation projects may be immediately implemented this fall, longer term projects such as replanting or salvage logging may require more time to implement due to required environmental reviews.

The rapid assessments include evaluation of burn intensity, soil stability and forest mortality.

These assessments will be used to identify areas where there are significant needs for actions to protect forest and watershed health, and areas where dead merchantable timber may be harvested in an environmentally sound manner before the trees begin to decompose.

Some burned areas and associated proposed actions are likely to require additional NEPA review and may take longer to reach the implementation phase.

Many wildfires are still active and emergency area closures remain in place for fires on the Priest Lake, Coeur d'Alene River and St. Joe Ranger Districts.

As firefighters make progress and fall weather further reduces fire activity, emergency closure areas will be lifted or will decrease in size. Due to rugged terrain and concerns for firefighter safety, some fires may continue burning until winter snows extinguish them.

For more information on current wildfires please visit www.inciweb.nwcg.gov or contact your local Forest Service office.