Kinnikinnick Chapter Of The Idaho Native Plant Society

November 7, 2002                   

Mick Shanilec

Jim Nolen

Priest Lake State Forest

2053 Cavanaugh Road

Coolin ID 83821

Dear Mick and Jim,

Our meeting yesterday at Outlet Flats was excellent and set the stage for a productive, cordial relationship. As promised I'm using this letter to outline my understanding of our consensus.

We agreed that it is a goal of both our organizations to work cooperatively to protect unique, important populations of native plants to the degree possible. In saying that, my organization understands that your primary responsibility is to harvest timber to support Idaho schools. In doing so, you follow IDL Best Management Practices, attempt to promote forest health and diversity, ensure sustainable yields and work to balance other interests, including those of important plant populations. A complex task.

Our primary zone of interest in PLSF lies in low wetlands and along the course of the Priest River . We hope to conduct field surveys of these areas over the next few years to identify and document the flora of these areas. Today we don't know what kind of variation we will find nor the extent of populations meriting special protections.

If you have any proposed timber harvests in these areas, we will give special attention to surveying them and reporting our findings to you. When we have concerns and/or recommendations we will work collaboratively with you to implement them to the extent possible for you within your broader goals.

To learn of your timber harvest plans, we will complete a request for a copy of the draft sales plan in January. For an area of interest, we will request a working map in May. July 1 you may have the Preliminary Sale Reports out and a further request for areas of interest is appropriate. We do ask that if your request system is simplified, you let us know.

To help us with our surveys we will ask a botanist to assist us with survey design and plant identification in the field. Any recommendations we make will be those of our Conservation Committee, not of an expert assisting us.

More specifically yesterday, we looked at two areas of concern from our August survey. Along the slope in unit 4, it turned out Jim had already identified the wet zone we highlighted as one to be removed from the sale. On unit 5, in the swale with "ground cedar" you will mark additional trees to be left. Your standardized wording will serve to keep equipment on existing roads and trails and out of the wet area.

In both areas, we plan to monitor for several years to evaluate the effect of harvest on these two ecosystems. Our organization has a lot to learn about what changes have significant impact on plant populations of interest and we want good science to guide our recommendations. We will keep you updated on our findings.

Again, thank you for working with us. We look forward to many positive outcomes.

Sincerely,

Molly O'Reilly

Chair, Conservation Committee

Cc. Kinnikinnick Chapter Board