Details on 

 other units 



REGION 1 - LOLO UNIT 



The Ninemile and Superior Ranger Districts 

 of the Lolo National Forest were used as a 

 study area because of the availability of soils 

 data from a recent soil inventory. This area of 

 835,133 acres lying west of Missoula and ex- 

 tending to the Idaho boundary is quite steep 

 and rugged; however, the land is sufficiently 

 stable to withstand the strain of timber use. Use 

 of the area by people has increased greatly in 

 recent years. As a result of public pressure to 

 create more recreation capacity, an especially 

 scenic area of 58,953 acres is now understudy 

 to determine the most appropriate use. This is 

 the area shown in the "deferred" category in 

 table 2. 



Another factor affecting use is the large 

 herds of deer and elk in the area. The large fires 

 that occurred in the area 50 to 60 years ago 

 destroyed forest and created large brush field 

 desirable for big game. Many of these burned- 

 over areas restocked with timber; however, siz- 

 able areas still support brush and browse and 

 only sparse timber cover. 



Because the area has proved to be desirable 

 big game habitat and has attracted so much at- 

 tention as a hunting area, big game manage- 

 ment must be given appropriate attention. This 

 must be done through timber harvesting and 

 management of forested areas to improve habi- 

 tat. For areas critical to the maintenance of 

 game herds, it often means maintaining brush 

 and browse cover. 



Inventory Problems 



In the process of relating timber to both the 

 forest land and forest land use, important data 

 problems were noted. While the study area gen- 



erally is made up of highly productive timber 

 land (see table 9), as is typical of mountainous 

 country, there are areas of rock talus, exposed 

 bedrock, or bedrock with insufficient soU cover 

 to be considered usable for timber growing. 

 Such areas often support enough timber cover 

 to be called forest land and in the absence of 

 soils data may be included in the estimate of 

 timber growing area. On the study portion of 

 the Lolo National Forest it was discovered that 

 14,002 acres of unusable rock land had pre- 

 viously been included in the timber growing 

 base. 



On the Lolo area it is also significant that 

 because of repeated harsh burns and soil loss 

 following these fires, some areas can no longer 

 be considered timber growing land. In the past, 

 timber inventory has taken the presence of tree 

 stumps and snags as evidence of forest land. In 

 the absence of ecological data they could not 

 do otherwise. In connection with this study, 

 the Forest staff, using ecological criteria, iden- 

 tified 9,433 acres that had been misclassified as 

 productive forest land. 



Two other problems became apparent in 

 analyzing the situation; however, data were 

 lacking to quantify them. One problem in- 

 volved areas that supported stands of stagnated 

 saplings and small pole-size trees that were not 

 likely to ever develop into utilizable timber. It 

 would be desirable if such stands could be iden- 

 tified and treated as a special category in forest 

 land management planning. 



The second problem also involves ecology. 

 Apparently, there are areas of pecuhar ecology 

 that present difficult timber regeneration prob- 

 lems. It is possible that these could be identi- 

 fied by using present ecological knowledge, but 

 funds have been too limited to permit it. 



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