Montana’s $7.2 million (and rising) West Mullan Fire human-caused

This satellite image shows the general location of the West Mullan Fire near Superior, MT.  As anyone can see, much of the Lolo National Forest lands, as well as private lands, north of Superior have been heavily logged and roaded. Some of the larger clearcuts and roads built on top of one another are impressive examples of the type of habitat fragmentation common in many areas of our national forests.
This satellite image shows the general location of the West Mullan Fire near Superior, MT. As anyone can see, much of the Lolo National Forest lands, as well as private lands, north of Superior have been heavily logged and roaded. Some of the larger clearcuts and roads built on top of one another are impressive examples of the type of habitat fragmentation common in many areas of our national forests.

This morning the Missoulian is reporting that:

A fire that has burned nearly 10 square miles north of Superior was human caused.

Officials with the West Mullan Fire said Tuesday that the fire that started on July 14 was human caused, but no further information was released.

According to Inciweb the human-caused fire started on July 14th at approximately 5pm and has burned 6,300 acres.  To date, this human-caused fire has cost $7.2 million and there are currently 821 people battling the fire.

4 thoughts on “Montana’s $7.2 million (and rising) West Mullan Fire human-caused”

  1. I’ve been watchin this fire too. The “fire perimeter” map “wrapped around” on of the regen clearcuts for a couple days…so it’ll be interesting to see if any “green islands” pop up. That said, it wouldn’t surprise me if “shelterwood harvests” on steep skyline ground burn up…I’ve certainly seen it…slope is hard to overcome fire. But then, I don’t think WUI thinning treatments on steep slopes is very recommended. It will be neat to see the BAER fire severity map when its done, In the meantime…I’m glad they logged it before it became woodpecker habitat.

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    • Larry: How, exactly, is this human-caused fire burning into a very heavily logged and roaded part of Montana “another unintended consequence of the “whatever happens” strategy!!” Your broken record doesn’t make much sense, Larry.

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      • What about installing and maintaining fuelbreaks? Preservationists don’t think we need them, especially outside of the teeny, tiny WUI they insist on. Modern projects need to deal with fuels of all sorts, and yes, fuelbreaks need to be maintained! I wonder how much maintenance could be done with those millions of dollars, eh?

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