Jette Lake logging project finishing up
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JETTE — A 1.2-million- board-feet logging project is finishing up in the Jette Lake area.
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Department of Forestry Division Manager Steve McDonald said the project started a year ago. Only tree thinning and burning of wood debris piles remains to be done.
The project covers 311 acres accessible on Road J3000 east of U.S. Highway 93 about 1.6 miles north of the Jette gas station.
CSKT officials said the area was at high risk of fire due to adjacent homes in the area.
“It was very thick. We try to lessen the risk of fire,” McDonald said. If one were to occur it would be kept on the ground in a more manageable state due to the logging and thinning, he said.
Some cross country skiers, horseback riders and bicyclists may have been impacted by logging activity over the past year, but McDonald noted the area is designated as “wildland urban interface” for commercial activity such as logging.
Seven small tribal logging operations were involved in the project.
The tribes are currently conducting logging operations in three other areas on the Flathead Indian Reservation: Saddle Mountain near Arlee, Ferry Basin between the Perma and Sloan bridges and Alder Ditch on the west side of the reservation.
Logging is scheduled to begin later this year at Dog Lake off Montana Highway 28 south of Hot Springs.
Next year, logging operations are planned for the Revais Creek and Hot Springs areas.
