A Bitterroot National Forest timber thinning project that’s been in the works for nearly five years has gone up in smoke as a result of the Roaring Lion fire. The Westside Collaborative Vegetation Management Project proposed to thin about five miles of national forest lands that border private property between Lost Horse and Roaring Lion creeks near Hamilton.
When Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Julie King signed off on the fuel reduction project the first week of July, the hope was that non-commercial thinning would have started later this month. The commercial logging portion was expected to be underway by late October.
But all of that is going to have to wait now, said Eric Winthers, Darby District ranger for the Bitterroot Forest. The fire has already burned through the upper third of the project where non-commercial thinning was planned. Some of the timber units have also been affected, Winthers said.
“At this point, it’s all going to have to be re-evaluated. We probably are not going to be able to offer it for sale this year,” he said. “Some of it will be a salvage sale. We’ll have to take another look once things calm down.”
The project was one of 13 in Montana selected to receive state funding as part of a program designed to increase the pace and scale of efforts to improve the health of the forest and watershed in the state.
From The Missoulian: https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/bitterroot-timber-thinning-plan-goes-up-in-smoke/article_f952e534-3c97-55c2-b9af-6867b6db2f93.html