Logging operations will begin on three projects across the San Juan National Forest’s Pagosa Ranger District. Projects will begin this month and are expected to continue through the winter months until January 2022. Stewardship contracts and timber sales are starting in the general proximity of each other near the Black Mountain, Williams Creek, and Sand Bench areas. Operations will resume in the Jackson Mountain area.
Jackson Mountain Stewardship Contract operations will reduce hazardous fuels, restore forest conditions, and improve forest health in ponderosa pine. The Pagosa Creek (near Black Mountain) and the Huerto Creek Stewardship Contract (near Williams Creek) will improve vigor and forest health in mixed conifer stands to foster conditions that are resilient and better able to withstand expected natural disturbances.
Additional outcomes will be improved age class and species diversity, maintained big game movement corridors, improved wildlife habitat diversity, and contributions to economic growth of local area communities. The North Fork Timber Sale (in the Sand Bench area) will recover timber value in dead and dying trees while also reducing the extend of dead and downed timber across the landscape over the long-term which will promote the recovery of forest vegetation.
Visitors should pay attention to and obey all traffic signs when traveling in or near these areas. Please exercise extreme caution when traveling on roads used by logging trucks, which may weigh up to 85,000 pounds. Forest visitors should expect to see heavy equipment working in the woods.
Log trucks will be hauling on Jackson Mountain, Plumtaw, McManus, William’s Creek, Poison Park, and Piedra Roads to Pagosa Springs. Logging trucks will be traveling in both directions on Highway 160.
For additional information contact Josh Merrill-Exton at (970) 264-1512 or joshua.merrill-exton@usda.gov.