Good Neighbor Authority projects in Sandpoint area advance fuel-treatment and commercial-sale work
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Summary
IDL—s Good Neighbor Authority team said a Sandpoint South decision notice is expected in December and will cover roughly 8,300 acres with fuels and commercial harvest components; a prior Scattered Lands NEPA decision covers about 7,000 acres and has already produced several sales.
Adam Ivy, program specialist for Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) in the Sandpoint office, updated Bonner County officials on active GNA projects and how the program works.
Ivy said the Sandpoint South decision notice should be complete in December. The proposal covers approximately 8,300 acres east of U.S. 95 up to Gold Mountain; about 3,500 acres were proposed for fuels treatments and roughly 4,800 acres for commercial harvest, though buffer requirements and areas unsuitable for harvesting often reduce merchantable acreage. "That project is going to be 8,300 acres ... it's gonna be looked at for fuels-only treatment varying from underburn to mechanical," Ivy said.
Ivy also reviewed the Scattered Lands NEPA decision covering lands west of State Highway 90.5 and south of the river, a roughly 7,000-acre decision that included about 3,800 acres of commercial harvest; he said about 2,600 acres of that commercial volume has been sold, which equated to about 30 million board feet produced from those sales.
"Typically the way we do things we come through and hit the commercial elements first to generate the funds to then start doing the fuel treatments behind," Ivy said. He described the program as a state-managed way to implement Forest Service NEPA decisions where Idaho Department of Lands accepts the role to carry out sales and treatments.
Ivy noted additional work on road reconstruction and culvert replacements in areas such as the Hard Rock area and said the Sandpoint office is seeking to expand the approach statewide where practicable.