Each year, the federal government sells millions of dollars of timber from federal forests. In 2020, contractors cut and sold $183 million worth of timber from national forests.

Mineral County no longer has a commercial lumber mill but there are lots of privately owned smaller mills in shops and backyards. 

The Lolo National Forest has 13 active timber sales in the Mineral County where the logs are trucked to commercial timber mills across western Montana. When forests offers timber sales, potential purchasers review the timber sale package and place a bid. The bids are reviewed by the Forest Service and typically the sale is awarded to the highest bidder.

A field trip to an active timber sale was recently conducted with representatives from the Forest Service, Montana DNRC, Mineral County Resource Coalition, the Great Burn Conservation Alliance and private citizens. 

“The Lost Marbles GNA (Good Neighbor Authority) project  is part of Red Bull Decision One,” explained Abby Lane, Superior District Ranger. “Talking with Willy (Peck) and the commissioners, we wanted to highlight a project that is being harvested right now in the Wildland Urban Interface. This is the first timber sale out of Redd Bull 1. This is Superior Districts first GNA sale. It is now in the hands of the Montanan DNRC for the contracting and harvesting. Aaron (Kim) is the GNA Forester responsible for all harvesting activities. The project is expected to wrap up in the summer of 2027 and once complete the DNRC will turn it back to the Forest Service for the final treatment of slash created from harvest.”

The Lost Marbles sale is located between Dry and Marble creeks. The entirety of the northern boundary is private property and the sale is 741 acres with approximately 40 acres complete. Through Good Neighbor Authority  agreements, Kim was able to negotiate with several private landowners to gain access. 

Willy Peck, Mineral County Resource Use Coordinator, has been involved with the project and all the departments involved.  

“The Forest Service has done a great job of looking for options and being creative to get the logs out of there. We’ve been working with private landowners, and the Department of Natural Resources has done a great job as this is a roadless area project which takes more time.”

Lorie Cotter, fire management officer, shared what to expect from the overall project. 

“I think that we’re looking at nine timber sales coming out of the Redd Bull 1 which took 10 years to navigate and we did it in stages as it was a large scale NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) project where we looked at everything. It doesn’t have a single focus. We looked at the fisheries. We looked at the roads. We looked at fires and fuel with plans for improving everything,” 

A unique twist with Lost Marbles is that it is 95% tractor-harvest (ground based) where usually they are 90% skyline and 10% tractor. 

“The general rule across our state is 35%. So, anything that has a grade of 35% and less is allowed to be ground based harvest. Anything over 35% is cable harvested skyline where the timber is pulled up the mountain side where it’s stacked and loaded.”     

Aaron Kim with the Montana DNRC explained the reason. 

“Ground based machinery like a hot saw and skidder, these are in the tractor category. A forwarder moves all the wood from where it’s being harvested down (almost 1/2 a mile) to this landing on private property,” where everyone was standing in the log yard with separate stacks of raw timber marked for firewood, post/pole, peelers, and studs.  Waving at the Forwarder driver that was bringing in 22 tons of timber, Kim said, 

“They work 10-hour days and if lucky, he gets about 10 turns (log loads) in a day, but it’s more like 6. The longer the distance to forward the longer the turnaround time, which will add to the time to complete all harvest operations. The project is using an in-woods processor (also known as a Harvester) which fells the tree, limbs and then cuts to length.” He then explained the end result. 

“This type of forest restoration increases health and vigor of the trees while reducing fuel loading. This area consists of healthy ponderosa pine and western larch but then there’s a lot of insects and disease starting to creep into the larch such as dwarf mistletoe. Each unit has its own plan but generally we’re leaving all Ponderosa pine, unless it’s too thick. And leaving the larch that is mistletoe free. When all said and done, you’ll have 30-35 trees per acre.” 

Denley Loge with the MCRC mentioned the area has a healthy elk population and this project will allow more forage for them which should help the farmers in the area with their hay crop creating an alternative food source.

Lane said, “The Lost Marbles GNA Project is the first of several timber sales to be sold out of the Redd Bull 1. The second timber sale for Redd Bull 1, Two Fish DxP, is out for bid right now.”

    The Lost Marbles Timber Sale near Dry Creek stipulated no new roads for the removal of the timber so 2 enormous pieces of equipment are being used to process and load into different categories at a log landing site. The cut to length will than be transported to lumber mills. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)