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REVISED BIODIVERSITY AND OLD GROWTH EVALUATION 

 FOR THE GLADSTONE CREEK PROJECT 



The Gladstone Creek Project is being evaluated as a possible FY 1998 timber sale area by the 

 Helena Area Office of the DNRC. Gladstone Creek, along with its main tributary Bear Gulch, 

 forms a third order watershed located north of Helena, Montana, south of the main stem of Wolf 

 Creek in T15N,R5W. 



The Gladstone Creek Basin was delineated on USGS 1 :24000 topographic maps. To incorporate 

 all potential access routes, and to provide for somewhat regular shaped boundaries for the 

 analysis area, the French Creek second order basin was also included (this in spite of the fact that 

 no harvesting is planned in French Creek, only one of the access options is. Furthermore, the 

 French Creek drainage area is too small to stand on its own as an analysis area, and its adjacent 

 position made it a logical inclusion for this evaluation.) Also included was an area of face 

 drainages that flow directly to the main stem of Wolf Creek. In brief, this analysis area can be 

 described as follows: Beginning at the confluence of Wolf Creek and Gladstone Creek, proceed 

 south up a spur ridge to the Gladstone/Rogers Creek divide, follow that divide S.W. to the 

 Rogers Montain Lookout Tower, then turn N.W. and follow the Gladstone/Lyons Creek divide to 

 Lyons Peak, then northerly along a divide separating Gladstone and French Creeks from the 

 Greenpole and Woods Creek drainage, to a point in the SWNW Sec. 15-T15N-R5W, then 

 easterly down the ridge to the confluence of French Creek and Wolf Creek, then dovm Wolf 

 Creek to the point of beginning. 



The total land area in this evaluation, both private subdivision and state classified forest school 

 trust lands, conies to 5638 acres. Due to the somewhat checkerboard arrangement of parcels in 

 this area, the state owns 2413 acres in this analysis area, i.e., 42.8% of the total. (See Table 1.) 

 Of the 2413 state owned acres, there are 44 acres of nonforest (1 .8%) with the remainder (98.2%) 

 supporting a variety of forested conditions. (See Table 2.) Based upon casual observation of 

 1990 aerial photography and early field reconnaisance, these state tracts appear to be 

 representative of the overall conditions in the analysis area (i.e., the private land forested vs. 

 nonforested conditions are similar to the percentages on the state land). 



Most of the operable terrain in this analysis area was logged at the turn of the century. Since that 

 time, regeneration and stand growth has increased overall tree density in this area. In the mid- 

 70's, portions of the private land were again selectively logged, and then subdivided into mostly 

 10-20 acre parcels. There was then another lull in activity until this current time. There are three 

 active hazard reduction agreements in this project area, two in Section 35 and a third in Section 

 23. 



The state land had one timber harvest of 34 acres (clear cut, no records) and a stand replacing 

 wildfire of 74 acres, both in Section 23. There have been no other stand initiating events on 

 these state tracts since the early 1900's. 



