Lolo Forest finalizes work plan for Wildfire Adapted Missoula
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) The Lolo National Forest has approved its final round of work on Forest Service lands within the Wildfire Adapted Missoula project.
On Friday, the Lolo National Forest announced that Missoula District Ranger Crystal Stonesifer has approved logging and prescribed burns on 87,000 acres of Forest Service land within the boundaries of the Wildfire Adapted Missoula project. Work could begin this summer.
After Missoula County developed its 2018 Community Wildfire Protection Plan, the Lolo Forest proposed its 177,229-acre Wildfire Adapted Missoula project in 2020 to address areas of wildfire risk in a 456,000-acre region around Missoula that extends to south of Lolo, east to Turah and Gold Creek, and northwest to Frenchtown and Evaro Hill.
After considering public comment in 2022, Stonesifer decided in December 2023 to prioritize about 16,000 acres of work on the southwestern portion of the project near Blue Mountain. The majority of the Blue Mountain work - 86% - was to be nonmechanized, including hand-thinning and burning.
Now, Stonesifer has decided what work will occur in the remainder of the project area over the next 20 years.
“As we carry this work forward, our ability to adjust treatments to shifting conditions will be essential,” Stonesifer said in a press release. “Over the next two decades, the treatments will be selected from the authorized activities to meet the current landscape needs, and the public will be informed as those decisions take shape. Conditional NEPA ensures that we have analyzed for the maximum potential effects for any of the potential treatment activities.”
Stonesifer has again authorized mostly nonmechanized work but hasn’t specified what work will happen where. Managers will select from six types of nonmechanized treatment, such as hand-thinning or burning, based on what would best suit each area across 78,000 acres.
On the remaining 13,000 acres, Stonesifer approved mechanized treatments, specifically shaded firebreaks and “biomass removals” using timber sales. The biomass removals are scattered throughout the project area. Some of the larger areas are west of Evaro; along the Pattee Canyon Recreation Area and down along Deer Creek; and a few south of the Snow Bowl and Marshall Mountain ski areas.
Stonesifer also approved about 1,000 acres of additional mechanized thinning and burning in the Blue Mountain area on the slopes along the road that leads to the top of Blue Mountain.
Stoneisifer said she took grizzly bears and old-growth stands into consideration. She also decided against planning on allowing any wildfires that start to burn some of the project area, partly because of agency direction.
However, her decision notes that wildfires are common in the project area, having burned about 61,000 acres since 2000. In addition, eliminating wildfire from Missoula County is not possible or desirable.
“However, by understanding the fire environment, reducing the number of unwanted human ignitions, using prescribed fire as a tool when appropriate, and taking other measures to reduce wildfire spread and intensity around developed areas, it is possible to reduce the probability of loss of life and property from the wildfires that will burn in Missoula County,” according to the decision document.
The Lolo Forest press release said the forest will continue to share information about planned activities, especially non-mechanized treatments, before work begins.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com