Forest Service emergency salvage plan could affect Idaho Panhandle forests
English Point is closed through Aug. 15 as Forest Service blowdown salvage moves into Kootenai County, with comments on the larger emergency plan due June 29.
The English Point Recreation Area south of East Lancaster Road and west of East English Point Road was closed June 22 through Aug. 15 while a contractor removes extensive blowdown from the December 2025 and March 2026 wind events. The closure is tied to the Cold Turkey Salvage Timber Sale, and Conrad Crossing Campground is also closed because heavy blowdown and hazard trees have left it unsafe to open.
Those local closures are part of the U.S. Forest Service’s 2026 Blowdown Emergency, an eight-page plan that could affect more than five million acres across Idaho and Montana and has direct consequences for Kootenai County recreation, road access, wildfire risk and timber hauling. The participating units are the Idaho Panhandle, Nez Perce-Clearwater, Lolo, Flathead, Bitterroot and Kootenai national forests, and the public comment period runs from June 23 to June 29, 2026.
The 2025 storm caused widespread damage across north Idaho forests, and crews had cleared many areas while additional assessment continued as roads and trails reopened. Wind-felled conifers can become breeding ground for bark beetles and other insects, and drought-stressed trees lose value over time, so the Forest Service is pushing salvage work before the normal environmental review is complete.
The damaged stands already under closure or flagged for salvage work include English Point, Conrad Crossing and the broader Idaho Panhandle blowdown areas now being assessed. Across the line in Montana, the Kootenai National Forest has identified an Ewe Bend Blowdown Salvage project, and the Flathead National Forest has a Rad Reid Blowdown Salvage project on about 512 acres.
The emergency process could shorten review by allowing work to begin before a normal environmental review is finished and by bypassing the pre-decisional objection review process. Temporary road building or maintenance may be allowed for timber haul, though wilderness-designated lands are excluded.
The work could stretch three to five years.
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