Swift Creek Landslide - Logging at Swift Creek

Logging At Swift Creek

It is not known what caused the landslide to reactivate. Sumas Mountain had not been logged as of 1924, but it is speculated that the 1930s was an unusually wet decade. Washington Department of Natural Resources reviews applications for logging on state lands and is aware of concerns that logging in the Swift Creek watershed could worsen slide conditions on Sumas Mountain. The majority of the slide is on privately owned lands.

About 50– 100 feet away from the landslide by a company called great western timber. This could have large effects at which the rate of this landslide moves per year. If you have too much logging the water is going to either sit in the soil, making this mass more likely to move suddenly,with less rainfall, or it could run off and create more and more erosion of these asbestos particles. Also Taking away trees from the surface of the landslide itself would cause the soil to be less and less likely to stay together. Picking up this sediment, you would find that the particles easily crumble in your hands, making them more likely to fall apart in weathering. With logging you have damage of the undergrowth which is also a very important part of holding soil together by protecting the soil from direct rain fall. This could also be called cushioning the fall. Thinning operations to the north and east.