A forest management project under way at Farragut State Park has area residents concerned about the motives of the agencies involved.

Park manager Randall Butt told The Press the bulk of the work now being done involves thinning about 60 acres of trees and brush. The work is being completed by Idaho Fish and Game at the request of the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.

The state wildlife agency owns one-third of the park's nearly 4,000 acres. The land is cooperatively managed by park officials.

"The resource work we do is designed to mimic historical stands that would have been present 100 years ago, when natural wildfires would have occurred about every 25 years," Butt said.

Now that wildfires are suppressed, forests are subject to overgrowth, Butt explained. In some areas, the survival needs of the trees eventually exceed the amount of moisture and nutrients available. Thinning and clearing those areas does the job wildfires would have done naturally.

The process also eliminates fuel loads that could lead to a catastrophic fire.

It's a matter of managing resources while balancing forest health, recreational and wildlife needs, Butt said. The safety of humans living within proximity to the forest is also a concern.

A 5-acre area below the viewpoint near Blackwell Point was clear-cut rather than thinned, Butt said, to re-establish the view shed at the popular lookout at the end of South Road.

"If the trees would have been healthier, we would have limbed the trees up to create a canopy," Butt said.

But the Douglas firs were infested with mistletoe, a plant parasite, and could not be saved.

Butt said the thinning and clearing efforts are aimed mainly at improving the health of the forest.

Some area residents are not convinced the agencies don't have a financial agenda.

"I've watched many, many logging trucks come out of there for many years," said Robert Hammell. "It's a logging operation."

Another Bayview man, Mike Lee, has been monitoring forest management efforts at Farragut for 20 years.

In an email message forwarded to The Press, Lee said the latest round of tree clearing at Farragut has been going on for six years, mainly in places that have not garnered much attention.

"With the recent hatchet job at the viewpoint the citizens of Bayview are able to see firsthand how destructive and insensitive the state of Idaho is toward our park lands," Lee wrote.

Lee filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the state parks and recreation department.

In his complaint, Lee wrote: "Under the guise of forest health and fire management, diverse forests are being literally tree farmed. In the last two years a wholesale profit-driven strategy has been employed that has resulted in the loss of hundreds of beautiful large trees that once lined the scenic roadways within the park. Skid trails wander along and across roadways, stump farms border campgrounds, soils are rutted and torn open."

Butt said trees are never felled at the park simply for the value of the timber.

Many of the trees cut during thinning and clearing have no monetary worth, he said. Those logs are generally mulched for other uses in the park.

If any of the cut trees have commercial value, Butt said the state will recoup that through the sale of the timber. Those proceeds then go into a specific resource management fund for the state park to use for resource-related activities such as noxious weed control and prescribed burns.

Butt said the residents' concerns about the intentions behind the recent forest work are a misperception based on something that happened many years ago when another land management agency did attempt to sell park timber for a profit. That happened before Butt's tenure at Farragut.

"It's a matter of rebuilding that trust," Butt said.

Paul Chesney, who lives near Bayview, said he has been involved in monitoring the forest management efforts at Farragut off and on for the last few years.

For a while they were doing it less aggressively, Chesney said, but in the past year, it appears they have ramped up their efforts.

Chesney feels local residents were not given ample notice of the thinning and clearing work now being done.

A press release was issued by Idaho Fish and Game on Aug. 5 announcing the proposed work at the viewpoint and some additional work on another 8 acres to restore Ponderosa Pine habitat. That release also announced an Aug. 17 one-hour open house at the state wildlife agency's regional office in Coeur d'Alene. The purpose of the open house was to discuss the project and take public comments.

Idaho Fish and Game also sent requests, in mid-August, to Bayview's Chamber of Commerce and the unincorporated town's community council, seeking public input.

Chesney said the request to the Bayview chamber asked for comments by the end of the month, and did not allow ample time for members to meet and respond.

"There wasn't enough time for Bayview to have done anything about it anyway," Chesney said. "That's what we want to start working on. We want them to give this community much more time to develop a consensus. What I really feel is important is for the people to know what's happening so they have a chance to give their input."