Funding designated towards local Forest maintenance projects

SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake campgrounds and day use sites as well as the Historic Double Arrow Lookout will see deferred maintenance upgrades starting this summer following an allocation of funding from the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). Montana Senator Jon Tester recently secured $285 million that will go into 54 national forest service projects according to a March 11 press release. 

Twelve of these projects will directly impact the Lolo National Forest including area campground sites and Double Arrow Lookout. GAOA passed last year and included full and permanent funding for the Land Water Conservation Fund and $9.5 billion to address maintenance backlogs in America's public lands through 2025. The funding comes from the Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund.

Projects were selected based on priorities like reducing deferred maintenance, improving visitor experience, improving visitor access, contributing to rural economic development, promoting management of National Forests, ensuring public health and safety, and leveraging partner relationships and resources.

Seeley Lake Ranger District staff will be analyzing all of the campgrounds under their jurisdiction but they will initially look at the "big four" which include Lake Alva, Big Larch, Seeley Lake and River Point. Some of the work expected to take place includes conducting an electrical analysis, conducting surveys to improve parking and traffic flow, designing a new boat launch in Seeley Lake Campground, and repairing or replacing all vault toilets across the District. Because GAOA takes place over the course of four years there will be opportunities for other projects to be addressed.

Matt Walter, Seeley Lake Ranger District recreation manager, said the projects are intentionally phased to provide sufficient time to construct a good design before jumping into construction.

Quinn Carver, Seeley Lake District Ranger, said forest staff was looking forward to working on these deferred projects.

"These campgrounds are so important to Seeley Lake and keeping the economy running up here," Carver said. "The beauty of this [maintenance] is we're getting an opportunity to take a thoughtful look at our campgrounds and look at all the stuff that we need to do and catch up on and also look towards how we're going to manage them in the future."

Carver said the Seeley Lake Campground boat launch is currently made of "native material" that has developed a big hole at the bottom from years of power loading.

Based on some of the initial engineering feedback that they have received, he believes the launch's location will be a challenge because of an eddy in the lake that will make getting the right slope difficult. They hope the project will help minimize sedimentation.

"It's needed hardening for quite some time," Carver said.

He said he is looking forward to improving traffic flow in the sites especially in regard to preventing trailered boats from meeting each other in a one-way lane. He is also optimistic about increasing parking lot capacity and improving the pavement with chip sealer.

Walter said they are looking at updating the two comfort stations in Seeley Lake Campground as well as increasing the size of the vault toilets.

District staff intends to conduct surveys and designs on the campgrounds for potential future contracts. Carver said he expects the work within the campgrounds to take place on the "shoulder" seasons.

"I don't want to take down campgrounds for extended periods of time ... between Labor Day and Memorial Day," Carver said. "This town lives and dies on what goes on in those campgrounds."

Kate Jerman, Public Affairs Officer for the Lolo National Forest, added, "Although the public may not see visible action taking place, the funding will be used to take those initial steps to addressing deferred maintenance."

While much of the campground site maintenance will likely be pushed into the future, Carver said Double Arrow Lookout will be closed this summer for maintenance.

Double Arrow Lookout is a 14 x 14 foot L-4 cab structure on a 20-foot pole tower. It was built in 1932, a year after Regional Forester Evan Kelly approved Clyde Fickes' plans for the first iteration of the pyramidal-roof L-4 Lookout House.

Jerman said the L-4 was one of the most popular types of live-in lookouts with encompassing windows and a wood frame.

The original detailed plans of the structure specified pre-cut and labeled lumber so employees with limited carpentry skills could assemble it. Other notable design elements include a three-foot catwalk and a pyramidal roof.

The Lolo National Forest included the Double Arrow Lookout in its pre-suppression fire network through at least 1967, when it was listed as one of 26 lookouts to be manned during the summer fire season. Author Ray Kresek indicated that it was manned in the early to mid-1980s in his book "Fire Lookouts of the Northwest." However, a February 1992 Forest Service press release "Seventy-Two Lookouts to be Operated This Summer Down from 800 Used in 1938" stated that the Double Arrow Lookout was no longer included in the Lolo's ground detection network.

After sitting idle for more than a decade, the Seeley Lake Ranger District and Northern Region Historic Preservation Team restored it for public use in 2006. Upgrades included reroofing the building and replacing and sistering all the cab joists and cap logs. It became a part of the Forest Service's cabin rental program and is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register.

"The deterioration of the structure is getting to the point where it's either fix it or take it off the [cabin rental] program altogether from a public health and safety standpoint," Carver said. "We know it's really popular and people love that place and it's not something we're really looking forward to pulling off the system. ... At some point, you've just got to get it fixed."

The updates have already been designed and approved. Walter said he is very hopeful that it can be completed in one season. However, they will do whatever it takes to fully restore it.

"We're not going to open it up until it's safe to open and that building needs a total makeover," he said.

Upgrades to the lookout include replacing the tower's support legs and bracing, concrete footings and staircase as well as repainting the exterior. The Northern Region Historic Preservation Team based out of Missoula will be leading the effort. Carver said the work the team does is "phenomenal."

One challenge he foresees has to do with the scaffolding and how the team will conduct these maintenance upgrades while the structure is still standing.

Jerman said they are currently unsure of how much will exactly be allocated to each project across the Lolo National Forest. The final amounts will not be released until they finish bidding the projects.

"To be sitting at the District at a time when we're investing a bunch into infrastructure, these ...  things last 50 to 100 years," Carver said. "It really makes me feel good that while I'm here, I can have some sway on getting some things fixed and caught up that are going to last a really long time."

A full list of the projects funded by GAOA can be found on https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/gaoa.