The onward march of the pine bark beetle, which has chewed through several million acres of Western forests, is causing Helena officials to retool their efforts to reduce wildfire danger in the city’s backyard.

City commissioners today will consider a proposal to use mechanized logging to remove every last dead or dying ponderosa pine on 27 acres off Lime Kiln Road, and they plan to sell salvageable pulp logs as commercial products to help offset project costs.

Commissioners will take public comment and decide whether to move forward with the work in a meeting set for 6 p.m. in the third-floor chambers of the City-County Building. They’ll also consider putting on hold two other projects on Mount Helena, due to funding and logistical conflicts.

In a recent meeting, commissioners said they want input from trail users and advocacy groups. Commissioners said such thinning projects may become more necessary as the beetle infestation continues. The work, they said, is essential to mitigate wildfire dangers and protect residents who hike on city trails — strong winds can topple standing dead trees.

“If we don’t do this, we could be closing trails in a few years,” Mayor Jim Smith said. “This work is ongoing,” Smith added. “This is not a one-time fix for a one-time problem.”

Some in the environmental community likely will object to the plan, and an advocate interviewed Friday said governmental agencies have relied too heavily on logging in their attempts to address a naturally occurring phenomenon.

The city’s proposal for the 12- and 15-acre parcels off Lime Kiln is a departure from a 2006 plan, which called for hand-thinning work. They also had planned to leave more pines on the land. Now, they want to remove all dying trees of all ages and sizes.

But the beetles have been ravenous, according to Parks and Recreation Director Amy Teegarden. Though many of the trees there are still green, they show bore holes, signaling an infestation, and the trees are pushing out sap, or pitch, to combat the onslaught.

Teegarden thinks most of those trees will lose that battle. She estimates more than 90 percent of the ponderosa pines on the Lime Kiln parcels will be dead next summer. The pines are the dominant species on those properties.

“They’re green trees that don’t know they’re dead yet,” she said.

The beetle issue has grown exponentially in recent years. Teegarden said some in the forestry community believe as much as 12 times as many trees will be red and dead by next summer.

She noted the project has several purposes. It will serve as a break in the canopy, which should offer firefighters a strategic tool if a crown fire sweeps through the area — where homes abut the dying stands. The project areas are within sight of the city’s upper east side neighborhoods.

“You wonder: is this really going to make a difference? We’re looking at a total of 27 acres,” Teegarden said. “But it’s really to change the dynamics of the forest in a fire. It will make a difference for those homes.”

She doesn’t expect the city to turn any profit by selling logs harvested in the project. If the city makes money off the work, those funds would be used for future fuel-mitigation projects, she added.

“(The purpose) is not to get a product off the ground and try to make money,” Teegarden said. “It’s how can we invest in this parcel of land and get our biggest bang for our buck on the ground, to make a difference and reduce wildfire risk.”

She also said the machinery used to harvest the trees will have little impact on the land. The city will use equipment that uses a grappling arm to carry logs out of the forest rather than dragging the timber — which can increase chances for soil erosion. The city used the equipment in June to log some stands on Mount Helena. No roads will be constructed during the work, and any damage will be reclaimed by the city.

Teegarden views the project as restoration work, and said the end result will mimic natural forest conditions. Tree stands are overgrown after decades of fire suppression, she said, giving the beetles a buffet of weakened trees on which to feast.

Teegarden and City Manager Tim Burton rejected the notion that the proposed logging is a major change in the Capital City’s management policy for Helena’s 2,000 acres of open spaces. They noted the city has done thinning projects for several years to mitigate wildfire risks.

“I think it’s an acknowledgement of reality,” Teegarden said. “These are things that need to be done to protect public safety and recreation values.

“It might seem reactionary, but it isn’t,” she added. “It just needs to be accelerated, the amount of work we’re doing.”

Burton said the projects are a continuation of past city work.

“There is a new element, and that is the infestation of the bugs,” he said. “We can only control our response to it.”

Michael Garrity, director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said the response is misplaced.

“I think it’s a waste of money and ecologically harmful,” Garrity said. “I supported the hand-thinning. I don’t think they need to go in and cut down big trees.”

Tree-killing insects are a natural part of the forest ecosystem, he noted, and the forests the city and other agencies are attempting to manage have lived with the bugs for thousands of years. Dead trees serve as habitat for a number of bird species, he added.

“Amy Teegarden keeps telling everybody that we’re facing this disaster,” he added. “I think after the red needles fall off, everybody’s going to forget about it.” He said he’s observed stands where many trees were killed several years ago — in those areas, once the needles fall from the trees, observers can see that substantial numbers of trees have survived.

Garrity recalled driving through the Gallatin Valley in the 1970s when a localized beetle outbreak was in full swing. For a few years, the landscape was colored with the dead trees’ ominous red needles, he said, but as time passed the tree stands recovered.

He said the effort to move toward mechanized timber harvesting is the result of in-the-box, institutional thinking. Proponents of such projects, whether they be consultants or governmental officials, tend to either have a background in silvaculture or be informed by people who do.

“Their solution is always to log, no matter what the problem,” Garrity said. “This whole problem has been focused on one single outcome.”

Other projects

The city plans to move forward with five total projects, including the two jobs near Lime Kiln road. The other projects won’t use heavy machinery. Workers will hand-cut selected trees and cut low-hanging limbs in the following locations:

n 36 acres near the Easy Rider trail on Mount Ascension

n 11 acres near the Entertainment trail on Mount Ascension

n five acres on Nob Hill.

The city received about $103,000 from the federal government to tackle the projects, and taxpayers will provide $34,000 in matching funds.

Officials had also planned to thin 62 acres between the 1906 and Prairie trails on Mount Helena, but an estimate for the work came in at $97,400. The city is working to obtain additional grant funding to pay for that project.

Planned thinning on 15 acres near the McKelvey trail on Mount Helena has also been delayed to allow the city and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to survey the land and sort out exact property boundaries.

Reporter Larry Kline: 447-4075 or larry.kline@helenair.com