Historic Logging Shaped These Woods

Historic Logging Shaped These Woods. Lubrecht Experimental Forest. Foresters at Lubrecht Experimental Forest study tree harvest and growth in a landscape shaped by logging. The first large-scale logging in Montana occurred on the Blackfoot River corridor in 1885. , From 1885-1900, loggers prodded oxen to skid logs off snowy hillsides to the river ice. When the ice thawed, a wall of logs roared downstream to a sawmill at the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers. By the early 1900s, a narrow gauge railroad crossed the Potomac Valley, on your left, and took over the oxen's work. By the mid-1920s, a standard-gauge railroad ran up the valley and transported logs to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company's lumber mill in Bonner. , Back then, the forest must have seemed an infinite source of big trees for the taking. Today, Lubrecht foresters study timber practices that better match natural processes. , Research at Lubrecht spans everything from tree harvest to the impact of recreation on the Blackfoot River; the same river that once served as a workhorse for log transport. , Founding Lubrecht , The Anaconda Copper Company gave 19,000 acres to the School of Forestry at the University of Montana after Anaconda’s last period of logging in 1937. Lubrecht dedicates its efforts to natural resource experimentation, demonstration and education.