KALISPELL — Major windstorms in December blew down thousands of trees across northwest Montana.
The Flathead National Forest is looking to salvage those downed trees and mitigate high-severity wildfire risk at three different locations in the Flathead region.
(WATCH: Flathead National Forest project aims to salvage downed trees, reduce wildfire risk)
The Coal Banks Salvage Project would involve three regions totaling 228 acres - the coal banks area in the North Fork Flathead River basin, Firefighter Mountain east of Hungry Horse Reservoir, and the Spotted Bear airstrip south of Hungry Horse Reservoir.
“And some of these areas are right by private land that we need to protect those values at risk, so we’re treating the fuels to help reduce the risk of wildfire,” said Hungry Horse-Glacier View District Ranger Rob Davies.
Davies said active management allows the Forest Service to salvage the timber for economic value while also reducing the risk of high-severity wildfire in dense areas.
“When wildfire comes into those areas, it creates a lot of heat and a lot of challenging firefighting strategies to try to deal with it, so this helps reduce that area of fire, that potential for fire, it doesn’t eliminate it, but it does reduce the fuel hazard by quite a bit,” said Davies.
Public comment on the salvage project is open until July 13 and can be submitted here.
More information on the project can be found here.
