Forest Service Delivers Bovee Update at Byway Conference

Forest Service Delivers Bovee Update at Byway Conference
Forest Service Rangeland Manager Geri Proctor delivers an update to the Bovee Fire at the One Box Convention Center during the SJNSB annual conference.

BROKEN BOW – The Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway held its annual meeting on Saturday, January 21 in Broken Bow. In the One Box Convention Center full of byway members, vendors, and supporters, there was, to no surprise, still room enough for an elephant: the future of the Halsey National Forest and 4-H Camp.

Fortunately, United States Forest Service Rangeland Manager Geri Proctor, a 34-year veteran of the service and on loan to the Bessey Ranger District from her home base in Laramie, Wyoming, was on hand to keep the pachyderm under her thumb.

Amid a flurry of questions about destruction numbers, the sustainability of the forest going forward, and its restoration process, Proctor said that it’s in the forest’s nature to shift and change.

“I tell people it’s always sad to see stuff burn, and there was some infrastructure lost, and that is sad, but it is an opportunity to go into the future with a solid plan, but still honor what that district was. It was started as an experiment, and so we’d like to continue with that.”

The Bovee Fire, while devastating, was not the first blaze to melt Halsey’s acres; in May of 2022 the forest endured a smaller blaze, and in 1965 nearly half of it was chewed up by the Plum Fire.

Proctor addressed the Forest Service’s rehabilitation efforts in a presentation to the twenty-plus in attendance, explaining that to salvage the forest, her department is looking into ways to salvage the forest.

“We’ve got a lot of burnt trees out there, and Bessey is looking at all of them going, ‘What are we going to do with them?’ So, they’re looking at saw timber, is there any way that to get any of that out of them; cedar posts and pole, woodchips, and even biomass.”

Proctor added that the Forest Service’s results when it comes to salvage is tangible, efficient, and effective: “We do have a plan; we’re not just going to let those dead trees stand.” The process for removing the dead trees, and exactly how many to remove, will require careful, patient planning, Proctor said: the last thing the Forest Service wants to do is cultivate ideal conditions for another devastating fire, or disturb potential habitat for returning wildlife.

“How many snags should we leave out there for the birds that are cavity nesters? Right now, nature has just created a whole new habitat out there.”

The Bessey Ranger District has, according to Proctor, secured nearly $2 million in funding aimed at cleanup and rehabilitation, which will include replacing the Scott Tower Bridge, damaged road signs, range fences, and reconnecting trail systems.

Reseeding a unique forest, while normally a naturally-occurring process, Proctor says will be an equally unique process. The trees were initially planted in blocks to be harvested for timber, which altered the natural development of the forest.

“They took me to one of those blocks and it’s just bare ground, and it’s been bare ground for 100 years now, and the only thing organic there are the needles, and they change the soil. The concern is that the grasses won’t be coming back in naturally.”

The other piece of the forest which won’t grow back naturally is Halsey’s beloved 4-H Camp. Proctor says that while not directly responsible for envisioning the camp’s future, the Forest Service is doing all it can to lay the groundwork for conversation which will hopefully lead to reconstruction.

The camp, according to Proctor, was a special-use permit operation; the Forest Service granted the land to be used by the Nebraska 4-H Foundation for a nominal fee. Roughly ten years ago, the price for the use of the land was only about $135 per year.

“We have people in the district that are from Halsey, that are from Nebraska. The Forest Service gets how important the camp is. We have no decision on whether the camp gets reconstructed; as far as whether they decide to rebuild, that’s up to the 4-H Foundation, the state, and the legislature. We understand that it’s going to take a while, so if the decision is to rebuild, there’s no timeline. We understand that it’s probably going to take years just to make plans.”

Meanwhile, with the recent mutual aid in the form of heavy snow, the Bovee Fire becomes only more controlled; Proctor says that it cannot be declared “out” by federal definition, as somewhere within Halsey a tree dump may still be sending up smoke.

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