A Walk in the Woods Celebrates Montana Forest Products Week

SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Ecosystem Center (SEC) hosted a Walk in the Woods Oct. 22 to highlight the importance of forest stewardship and forest products in the Seeley and Swan Valleys.

More than a dozen participants visited area businesses that are dependent on forest products and walked through two different forest stewardship projects completed through SEC. The tour was funded through a grant from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC).

The day started with a presentation from the owner of United Methanol of Bigfork, Mont. Stephen Jenkins. Jenkins earned a bachelor's degree in forest management from the University of Montana and has always been interested in how to get rid of logging waste.

Logging slash disposal costs loggers and the forest service several percent of total cost to log because only a few tons can be left per acre after logging is completed. The excess must be hauled off site by truck or burned on site. Both options are costly and have negative externalities including more logging truck traffic, air shed pollution and burn scars on the landscape.

United Methanol looks to go to the logging operation and turn this slash into liquid carbon dioxide and methanol through a process known as pyrolysis. They are currently working on small-scale models to prove their system works while searching for funding for a full-sized system.

"This is a safe, environmentally friendly way to economically dispose of loggers' biggest waste product," wrote Jenkins in an email to the Pathfinder.

SEC Stewardship Forester Roger Marshall highlighted two different forest stewardship projects in the Swan Valley. Lary Rogers mitigated hazardous fuels over a period of four years on 10 acres of property with a 50/50 cost share agreement through SEC. Rogers moved from California where his house was the only one of 12 in his neighborhood that survived a 325,000-acre wildland fire.

"It was pretty good fortune but firefighters pulled in and said our house was defensible," said Rogers. "We wanted that same level of defense here."

Marshall said that Rogers' property is the best example of thinning in the valley. Marshall believes the biggest threat to Rogers' property is his neighbor's property that has not been treated. SEC is in the process of working with the owner and they have completed the pre-commercial thinning.

SEC Conservation Director Luke Lamar highlighted a wetlands restoration project off of Kraft Creek Road. The wetland had been ditched, partially drained and hayed for decades. The $2,000 project plugged the ditch with a treated wood structure and earthen structure to help raise the water to the determined historical high water mark for the 12 acre wetland.

Lamar said that of the 16 percent of the Swan Valley floor, or around 20,000 acres, are wetlands. Of the 20,000 acres of wetlands, 2,600 acres have been drained or manipulated.

Lamar told the group that wetlands are so important because 75 percent of wildlife depends on wetlands for at least part of their life cycles. Wetlands are also important for water quality and quantity. Other indirect benefits of functioning wetlands include holding water longer, recharging the ground water, keeps water cooler for fish and are some of the best carbon sinks in the world.

Lamar has been with SEC for one year. He said it has been a challenge to build the program and sell the idea to landowners about the importance of restoring their wetlands. However, the benefits of increased property value, holding water year round and acting as a fire break and people seeing their neighbors having more birds and other wildlife on their property are all incentives.

The group stopped at several forest product businesses including Roundwood West north of Seeley Lake, Nordique Log Homes, Swan Valley Montana Firewood and Mountain View Log Homes.

Owner of Mountain View Log Homes Lloyd Hahn and his builder Michael Phillips spoke to the group about the log home business. Hahn worked for Rustics Log Home builders in the Swan Valley prior to building his first log home in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s he got out of outfitting and started building log homes full time.

Phillips said that the market peaked in the mid-90s. He was running a crew of 10 builders for Hahn and they had two to three houses going all year long.

Now they average one house per year. They started the house in Hahn's log yard this spring.

"I don't have enough logs to finish it," said Hahn. "I've called every supplier I've used since the 1980s and can't find any dead lodgepole to finish the house."

Hahn said that he only needs 20 more logs to finish the main structure. The lodgepole logs need to be a 10-inch mid-span and 16 feet long. He said it would take seven to eight days to finish the structure, except the trusses, if he had the logs.

"I will come up with the logs but it may take a while," said Hahn.

The struggle to find standing-dead logs is becoming more and more of a challenge for Hahn. He said most of his logs come from private land and there is not the supply there used to be.

"If I don't have a source of logs, I won't bid a house," said Hahn acknowledging that is what has delayed this house for so long.

"The tour was all about forest products week," said Marshall. "All the other Walk in the Woods tours [across Montana] were for students. We wanted to offer something for adults and highlight the good work going on in our valleys. Hopefully next year we will get the word out sooner and fill the bus."