FAMB's Comments on the Lake Five Project Environmental Assessment

FAMB has submitted the following comments on the US Forest Service's Lake Five Project Environmental Assessment. The stated objective of this project is to "reduce tree densities and fuel loadings within the wildland-urban interface in the Lake Five area; improve the diversity and resilience of terrestrial ecosystems and vegetation; and provide a mix of forest products to contribute to economic sustainability." FAMB is asking the Forest Service to take steps to prevent and mitigate damage to existing trails and legacy logging roads in the area currently in use by a wide variety of user groups.

You can read more about this project at:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=58984

If you would like to submit comments on this project, they are due by May 19. More details on how to submit comments:
www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/114631_FSPLT3_5622286.pdf

FAMB's comments, submitted via email Wednesday, May 12, 2021:

May 12, 2021
Robert Davies, District Ranger 
Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District 
P.O. Box 190340 
Hungry Horse, MT 59919
Dear District Ranger Davies:
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Flathead Area Mountain Bikers (FAMB) regarding the Lake Five Project.  It has been our experience that, with some reasonable design criteria restrictions, trails and silvicultural activities can coexist amicably, and we hope this project can effectively look after the trails in the Lake Five area.   

While the Lake Five Project doesn’t have a specific recreation component, as you know and as the environmental assessment acknowledges, there are a number of trails in the area that will be impacted by the logging activities and vegetation management.  While FAMB is a mountain bike advocacy group, we believe efforts to preserve these trails will benefit all non-motorized user groups.  We appreciate that the recreation design features set forth in the EA attempt to minimize and account for impacts to some extent, but we feel those design features do not go far enough.  

Primarily, those design features only require repairing damage to outfitter and guide permitted trails.  This ignores the fact that the general public have been using and enjoying this area for many years, and there may be popular trails that are impacted by the project that would not be repaired because they are not used by guides or outfitters.  We request that the recreation design features be amended to include all trails in the “Green Gates” area as mapped on Trailforks 
(https://www.trailforks.com/region/green-gates/?activitytype=1&z=12.7&lat=48.46523&lon=-114.00189).
While we recognize that some of the mapped trails are historic logging roads that will likely be used for hauling as part of this project, we also request that design features be included that help protect the trails that are not used as roads.  Specifically, we request design features that:

1. Require all trails be marked and flagged prior to the commencement of any logging or vegetation management.
2. Specify that trail corridors (50 feet to either side of the trail tread) not be used to skid logs or be used as transport routes for equipment.
3. That any equipment that must cross trails do so in designated locations and at an angle perpendicular to the trail so as to minimize trail tread disturbance.
4. That any slash piles be placed outside of trail corridors.
5. That any log decks be placed outside of trail corridors, and that any log decks that are built on roads that are mapped as trails be scraped of woody debris prior to the completion of the project.
6. That, to the extent practicable, the trail corridors be preserved for future use.

We hope that these requests will be incorporated into the design features to minimize the work required to restore the trails.  We also recognize that some damage to the trails is inevitable, and FAMB and its Flathead Trail Crew would be happy to help repair the damage to the trails in the Lake Five area upon the completion of vegetation management activities.

Thank you for your consideration, and feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
/s/ Dan Hansen 
President
Flathead Area Mountain Bikers, Inc.