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Colt Summit Restoration Contracts Awarded
Release Date:
Missoula, MT. – Two contracts that include decommissioning Forest Service Road 646 on the Seeley Lake Ranger District, reconstructing a new road access, and replacing an undersized culvert were awarded today to local contractors Ureco Inc., from Columbia Falls, and Les Schlegel Enterprises, Inc. of Kalispell. The work is expected to begin next spring as part of Colt Summit, a Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) funded restoration and fuel reduction project. The contract will fund re-routing the existing access by removing FS Road 646 and establishing a new road (through construction and reconstruction) above the Colt Creek drainage. The new road location will result in substantially less sediment delivery into Colt Creek, which is important habitat for both bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
The work will also benefit local contractors, said David Cheff, of Ureco. “That there are multiple awards not only benefits my company but provides work for others as well,” Cheff said. “It’s just a great opportunity, it’s work for us for next year that we didn’t have...and it’s a great project that is enhancing grizzly bear habitat.”
Primary objectives of the Colt Summit project include restoring grizzly bear, bull trout, aquatic and riparian habitat on Colt Creek. FS Road 646 is currently adjacent to the stream and encroaches on the riparian habitat corridor, an important feeding and travel route for grizzly bears. Decommissioning the road will increase the amount of core security for grizzly bears and other wildlife. The location of the increased security core is very desirable, according to wildlife biologists, because it links to core security areas to the west and extends the core security between the Mission Mountain Wilderness and the Bob Marshall Wilderness on the east. The new core security acreage is also in high quality riparian habitat.
The rerouted access, which primarily follows existing road prisms with a short new construction linkage, provides scenic views of the Swan Mountain Range and much of the Colt Summit Restoration and Fuel Reduction project area.
Recreationists seeking non-motorized recreation opportunities will benefit from the decommissioning of FS Road 646 and retention of a trail with a B1 closure, meaning closed to highway vehicles, motorcycles, and ATVs yearlong, and closed to snowmobiles April 1 to June 30.
A specific schedule for the road work will not be established until next spring. All “windows for operations” – or periods of work -- to protect fish, grizzly bear and goshawk will be adhered to.
The contract includes three primary items, including:
· Five miles of road decommissioning
· Approximately 9.5 miles of road reconstruction and 0.6 miles of new road construction.
· Colt Creek Culvert Replacement.
For more information please contact the Lolo National Forest Public Affairs Office at (406) 329-1024.
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