The Bitterroot National Forest moved forward this week on the last two projects to reduce hazardous fuels in the urban/wildland interface along nearly all of the western edge of the Bitterroot Valley.
Forest Service Supervisor Julie King approved the Como Forest Health Project that authorized the forest to move forward with plans to thin about 2,254 acres between Lake Como and Lost Horse Canyon. Plans call for opening bids for the sale sometime in September, with hopes that work would get started as early as this fall or winter.
Bitterroot Forest officials also announced the first public meeting on a proposed project to thin another 2,500 acres just north of the Como project between Lost Horse and Roaring Lion creeks. The open house meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Bitterroot River Inn in Hamilton.
If approved, the Westside Collaborative Vegetation Project would add the last nine miles of treated forestlands along the wildland urban interface that reaches from south of Darby to near Florence. The proposed project is just north of the Como Forest Health Project.
“I think as far as larger projects go, that would kind of fill in treatment of WUI” along the west side of the valley, said Sara Grove of the West Fork Ranger District. The Westside project is one of 13 in the state to receive state funding under a new program to help increase the pace and scale of efforts to improve forest and watershed health in Montana.
From the Ravalli Republic: https://ravallirepublic.com/news/state-and-regional/article_1aa3019f-d041-50ba-a0c9-87f6d22431d4.html