Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Forest Management

Forest management has been a concern in the forested northern portion of the NRA since it was established. By the 1940s, forest fires, smelter fumes, logging, and clearing for farming had destroyed most of the old-growth trees along the shores of the north portion of the reservoir. These were being replaced by second-growth conifers and by willow, birch, and alder. Little funding was available, however, for pro-active forest management. Superintendent Claude Greider stated firmly that no commercial sales of forest products had been made from land within the NRA and that none were contemplated. LARO's forestry policy in the 1940s and 1950s, similar to other Park Service units, was aimed at protecting the forests against fire, insects, disease, grazing, and other threats and thus maintaining the beauty and safety of the area. LARO personnel relied on the expertise of other agency personnel, such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, for advice concerning disease and insect infestations. [72]

Spraying trees at Fort Spokane, 1963. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO.FS).

LARO began actively managing its forests for disease and insect control in the 1960s. Although none of the problems were considered critical, concerns included bark beetles, needle casts and blights, mountain pine beetle, western pine beetle, western gall rust, chemical injury along roadsides, and dwarf mistletoe. The Forest Service conducted annual aerial surveys to inspect the infestations, sometimes accompanied by LARO personnel, and recommended standard silvicultural practices such as removing infected trees, thinning, pruning, and use of chemicals such as DDT. Thinning projects consisted of removing "decadent high-risk mature pines" throughout the NRA, particularly those within campgrounds, to prevent mountain pine beetle epidemics. [73]

In 1967, the U.S. Forest Service Regional Forester commented, "In effect, much of the land adjacent to Lake Roosevelt is suffering from an 'epidemic of tree' which in time will be cured by an epidemic of mountain pine beetle.'" He suggested that LARO develop a long-range timber management plan and offered assistance from Forest Service pathologists and entomologists. The Park Service Regional Director endorsed the proposal, which involved a contract for surveying, inventorying, mapping, and delineating management units and setting up an annual program to be completed in five to ten years. [74]

By the mid-1960s, within the Park Service as a whole, native insects and diseases began to be considered of equal value to native plants and animals. But at NRAs like LARO, they continued to be controlled more than in the large national parks. LARO personnel did not hesitate to use highly toxic pesticides in the late 1970s to eradicate bark beetles, which were damaging trees in a number of LARO's developed areas. By the 1980s, Integrated Pest Management became the norm Servicewide as the Park Service tried to reduce the amount of chemicals applied on park lands. [75]

LARO's 1980 General Management Plan specified that trees could be felled and removed to prevent insect infestations of neighboring lands, to reduce fuel buildup around high visitor-use areas, and to improve visitor safety within developed areas. Trees were also cleared occasionally to enhance vistas. The 1981 RMP acknowledged that the policy had been inconsistently applied, particularly in areas where adjacent non-federal lands were involved. It recommended a comprehensive tree management policy to replace the existing loose standards, based on current scientific forest management principles rather than personal judgment. Some conflict with adjacent landowners had arisen because the landowners wanted more trees to be removed than the Park Service felt was justified. [76]

In 1982 and 1983, U.S. Forest Service personnel surveyed LARO's developed areas and identified trees to be thinned by maintenance crews. They urged that thinning and control of soil compaction be done to increase the vigor of the remaining trees. Trees along about one hundred miles of shoreline from the north end to and including the Spokane Arm were infected primarily with mountain pine beetle or western pine beetle. The thinning program that began in the 1970s became more aggressive in four developed areas and was considered successful. LARO's 1988 RMP recommended continued thinning in developed areas, building barriers to prevent vehicles from driving close to trees, and tilling to loosen compacted soils, with formal evaluation by Forest Service technicians every three years. [77]

LARO prepared a Hazard Tree Management Plan that was approved in 1984. A hazard tree is one in a use area that may fall and cause injury or property loss. The plan used a point rating of both tree condition and target value to determine the tree's hazard potential. District rangers and district maintenance foremen were assigned to do annual inspections of the 220 acres of developed zone that needed hazard tree management, and the Natural Resources Specialist was the park's Hazard Tree Coordinator. In 1994, LARO estimated that some one thousand hazard trees within the NRA needed "mitigation." Hazard trees located adjacent to private land became a politically sensitive issue at LARO because so many threatened private structures. [78]

In the early 1990s, an outbreak of western pine beetle affected ponderosa pines throughout the region. In response, LARO staff in 1992 conducted a Forest Insect and Disease Risk Assessment Survey of the twenty-six developed campgrounds forested with ponderosa pine within the NRA. They concluded that the forests along the lake were stressed due to drought, fire suppression, overcrowding, poor forest management practices, and soil compaction and were therefore susceptible to disease and insect infestation. The park continued its tree-thinning program, and the Integrated Pest Management and hazard tree management programs complemented the effort. LARO, with funding and technical assistance from the Forest Service, is now developing priorities for treatment areas and is in the process of establishing a prescribed fire program to meet park objectives. This is part of an interagency effort to improve forest health in eastern Washington. [79]

Following the 1992 survey, LARO resource management and maintenance staff have implemented forest pest management projects each year. Annual field surveys help determine the priorities. Treatment methods now include clearly delineating individual campsites, barricades, revegetation, prescribed burns, and selective tree removals. The Forest Service's Forest Pest Management Program provided the initial funding, but this ended after 1998. [80]

Noxious Weeds and Exotic Plants

Noxious weeds were a concern at LARO as early as 1948. LARO Superintendent Claude Greider, writing to the Park Service Regional Director that year about knapweed, goatweed, and larkspur, commented, "We do not know how prevalent any of these weeds are and have no recommendations at this time." [81] He noted that chemicals could easily control Canadian thistle and mullein. By 1951, the goatweed problem in the Kettle Falls area was serious enough that the Forest Service and Soil Conservation Service launched an aggressive campaign to limit its spread. Greider requested and received one ton of Borascu to treat the weed on LARO lands. Grazing permittees also attempted to control the noxious weeds on their lands within LARO. In 1948, LARO turned some seventeen hundred acres of bottomland along the Kettle River over to the Kettle-Stevens Soil Conservation District through a long-term permit; it had become a "nursery for noxious weeds," which disturbed local raisers of livestock. [82]

By 1981, Park Service policy restricted the herbicides that LARO had been using for noxious weed control. Although some herbicides continued to be approved for use at LARO, restrictions on their use made it difficult for the NRA to comply with county ordinances. The park began a more aggressive noxious weed eradication program for fourteen species of noxious weeds using spraying, mechanical methods, and revegetation of impacted sites with native species in the 1980s. This program was subject to funding availability, which limited its effectiveness in some years. Priority locations for treatment were road accesses, developed campgrounds, and the Fort Spokane grounds. The weed control districts, adjacent property owners, and farmers in the area were all concerned that federal lands were contributing to the spread of knapweed, goatweed, jamhill mustard, dalmation toad flax, thistle, and other noxious weeds. LARO did receive funding to develop a monitoring protocol to assess the effectiveness of its noxious weed control program. [83]

A 1994 aquatic weed survey conducted by the Stevens County Noxious Weed Control Board in 1994 found Eurasian milfoil at the mouth of the Colville River. A survey of the entire reservoir for Eurasian milfoil, an invasive exotic plant, was recommended in the 1996 Lake Roosevelt Management Plan but has not yet been accomplished. LARO's 1998 GMP stresses the need for a baseline flora inventory to answer specific questions about species, abundance, status, and distribution, and to identify any endangered, threatened, or sensitive flora within the NRA in order to protect them. [84]