U.S. Forest Service closes Solo Creek
NORDMAN — The U.S. Forest Service has temporarily closed an approximately 5-acre parcel in the Priest Lake Ranger District to manage significant safety hazards and damages incurred from amateur mining activities.
The Solo Creek quartz site, located just over the Washington border in Pend Oreille County, has long been a destination for rockhounds seeking to dig quartz crystals. In recent years, it has become so full of holes as to create significant hazards related to undermined trees, slope stability and drainage issues from bare soils, giant holes and tunnels. The site contains dozens of hazardous trees at risk of falling into the diggings. Some trees have fallen recently as a result of the extensive digging beneath their roots.
The Forest Service plans to mitigate the hazards within the site this coming year by removing those dead and dying trees that present a hazard to public safety. Unstable slopes will be contoured, holes will be filled and the site will be seeded and planted with trees for long-term recovery.
The current order closes the site to public entry through Oct. 23, 2024, unless rescinded sooner. However, it should be noted that digging for rocks and leaving huge holes is not a permitted activity in the first place. Rockhounding activity is limited to “little to no surface disturbance.” More extensive diggings that could result in significant surface disturbance, such as that seen at the Solo Creek site, is classified as mining activity and requires a permit with a reclamation plan to be approved by the district ranger.
Regardless, digging large holes and leaving them unfilled is never OK, nor is killing trees by digging up their root systems.
For information on this closure, contact the Priest Lake Ranger District office at 208-443-2512.
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Patrick Lair is a public affairs officer with the U.S. Forest Service Idaho Panhandle National Forests.
Popular rockhounding site near Priest Lake, Solo Creek, has been closed to the public to mitigate hazards.
A map of the area closure provided by the U.S. Forest Service.