Superior National Forest officials on Wednesday released their logging plan for a broad area near the Echo Trail west of Ely.
The proposed plan includes logging on about 12,800 of 126,000 acres of national forest land. That land is spread across about 203,000 acres when state, county and private lands are included.
The U.S. Forest Service plan will set how much logging is allowed in the area, determine how much wood is available for the timber industry and how many big trees are left behind.
The plan is the largest so far under the forest's new long-term strategy and includes one of the highest-profile areas of the Superior National Forest. The area surrounds the southern Trout Lake unit of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and includes popular tourist areas around Lake Vermilion.
"People around here pay attention to what happens in this forest. When you throw in the proximity to the Boundary Waters of this project and include some of the high-profile roadless areas, there's even more interest," said Nancy Larson, LaCroix District Ranger.
The plan also includes logging in roadless areas that conservation groups have sought to protect.
The Echo Trail management plan calls for clear-cutting 10,597 acres, 1,423 acres of partial logging and 779 acres of thinning, said Kris Reichenbach, Superior National Forest spokeswoman.
The overall management goal for logging in the area is to transition to a younger forest, including by increasing red and white pine, Reichenbach said.
The plan states the proposed logging will "improve forest health, reduce fire risks, improve wildlife habitat, increase the amount of pine trees and reduce overall mileage of roads" in the area.
The Echo Trail plan includes the controversial Big Grass management area. Last year, a federal judge halted logging plans in that area and ordered the Forest Service to take a harder look at cumulative effects of logging across the region.
The court also said the Forest Service must take a closer look at how logging along the Echo Trail might affect the aesthetic quality of the area for tourists and others who enjoy recreation in the area.
Superior Forest officials included the cumulative effects assessment in the new Echo Trail management plan and now hope the court finds the review acceptable.
Joshua Davis, conservation organizer for the Sierra Club in Minnesota, one of the groups that challenged the Big Grass sale, said it's too soon to say whether the Echo Trail plan follows the judge's orders.
"They do appear to have done a good job considering the accumulative impacts, but we haven't had a chance to look at all the fine print yet," Davis said. "They also appear to have done a good job listening to the public comments that people have made up to now, of considering what conservation groups and hunting groups have said."
After public comments are considered, the Forest Service will decide among four alternatives proposed for the Echo Trail area. Alternative 3 is the Forest Service's preferred plan of the four options analyzed and presented for public comment. Alternative 1 would include no logging. Alternative 2 is closest to the draft plan announced last year. It proposes about 15,000 acres of logging and may be the option most favored by timber industry officials.
Representatives for the Associated Contract Loggers and Minnesota Timber Producers could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
The Forest Service's preferred alternative includes logging in two roadless areas inventoried under the new forest management plan, which will anger some environmentalists who hope to set those areas aside as off-limits to new roads and logging. The two projects would include 1,900 acres of logging.
But, Davis noted, the Forest Service also added an Alternative 4 that includes no logging in the roadless areas.
"That's something we really asked them to consider, and they put it out there," Davis said. He added that public input on the various alternatives could affect the final selection later this year. "The public really has a chance here to have a say in what Minnesota's wild forests will look like 50 years from now."
The management plan calls for some planting of pines and some timber thinning to encourage more growth of young pines. The plan also calls for a few new loggingaccess roads for loggers to reach cutting areas. But at the same time, it includes the removal of 27 miles of existing logging roads to reduce vehicle travel into the forest.Duluth News Tribune
