From Deseret News archives:
Northern Idaho roads to recreation could be repaired
The Forest Service earlier this month released its plan for rebuilding roads in the 75,000-acre Lightning Creek drainage — one of the wettest in the state and which also contains a fault line that makes it susceptible to landslides.
The plan calls for rebuilding about 13 miles of road and obliterating 53 miles of road, most of which is already impassible or closed.
A fall flood in 2006 hammered the valley and washed out or undercut 30 miles of roads. Officials said a desire by the public to fully restore the network of motorized routes in the valley wasn't feasible.
"If there was an unlimited maintenance budget, and the geological and climate conditions in the drainage were more stable, I could have considered this request an option," Sandpoint District Ranger Dick Kramer wrote in the plan, called a notice of decision.
Other considerations in the Forest Service plan include the area being a haven for endangered species such as grizzly bear and bull trout.
Kramer said the Sandpoint Ranger District has secured about $2.5 million in emergency relief money from the Federal Highway Administration for work in the drainage.
Other sources of money will come from supplemental flood restoration funding within the Forest Service, Avista Utilities dam re-licensing mitigation funding, money from the congressional Legacy Roads & Trails Remediation program, and possibly federal economic stimulus funding.
"There's multiple funding sources going into making this project a reality," Jason Gritzner, a Forest Service hydrologist and team leader for the restoration project, told the Bonner County Daily Bee.
The Forest Service plan also includes converting 16 miles of road into non-motorized trail. Seven miles would be changed into routes for all-terrain vehicles no wider than 50 inches.
The plan calls for restoring all of Lightning Creek Road No. 419, the valley's transportation backbone.
One of the biggest changes from the past is restricting Rattle Creek Road No. 473 to non-motorized trail. For decades, vehicles and snowmobiles have used the route to reach the Cabinet Mountains Divide on the Idaho/Montana border.
Kramer said the road received significant damage and there is nowhere to put it where it wouldn't be washed out again.
Gritzner said the work could take up to eight years to complete, and would be divided into segments to limit disturbances to grizzly bears. Work could begin this year if there isn't an administrative appeal or a lawsuit.
"We've already been putting together contracts, so hopefully they'll be awarded and we'll start work this year," Gritzner said.
