Flathead Fuel Break Project via CE

From the Flathead Beacon, thanks to Nick Smith!

Land managers with the Flathead National Forest have approved three forest thinning projects totaling 1,784 acres in the Ashley Lake, Good Creek and Lion Hill areas of the Flathead Valley, describing the “fuel breaks” as proactive measures to brace against the threat of catastrophic wildfires, curb their intensity and protect communities stretching from Marion to Martin City.

The fuel break projects are designed to reduce the accumulation of hazardous fuels in strategic locations, according to U.S. Forest Service officials, including near private properties, roads, trails, powerlines, and other infrastructure. The projects, which are authorized under President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are excluded from documentation in an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

“This project aims to protect communities and critical infrastructure from catastrophic wildfires,” according to a Flathead Forest spokesperson. The decision memo for the Flathead Fuel Break Project was signed July 17.

“Growing wildfire risk is due to accumulating fuels, a warming climate, and expanding development in the
wildland-urban interface,” according to the proposal, which describes a new era of forest management. “The risk has reached crisis proportions in the West, calling for decisive action to protect people and communities and improve forest health and resilience. It will take a paradigm shift in land management across jurisdictional boundaries to reduce risk and restore fire-adapted landscapes.”

The signed decision approves forest treatments that involve thinning the understory along roads to reduce ladder fuels and tree densities, while leaving the mature overstory intact. Each fuel break has a maximum width of 1,000 feet.

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Sounds like there was public involvement.

Although the projects were approved under a categorical exclusion and don’t require additional layers of environmental analysis to proceed, a public comment period last year elicited a mix of support and opposition.

The three-member Flathead County Commission unanimously endorsed the project, as did the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s (DNRC) Northwestern Land Office.

“Providing fuel breaks in advance of wildfire emergencies represents a proactive approach to protecting communities and landscapes from the impacts of uncharacteristic wildfires that are occurring more frequently with changing climate,” wrote Greg Poncin, area manager for the DNRC’s northwestern land office. “The growing number, size, and intensity of wildfires in Montana points to an urgency for action to prepare for wildfire in advance of emergencies. This also provides a more environmentally-sound approach to this action than is possible during the emergency of an actual wildfire.”

Several environmental groups including the Swan View Coalition, Friends of the Wild Swan and Alliance for the Wild Rockies submitted comments urging the Flathead National Forest to complete an EIS or, at a minimum, an EA.

Work on the fuel break projects is slated to begin immediately.

The documentation is interesting..here’s a link to the project file. They used three separate extraordinary circumstances reviews for each of the three areas, and the decision memo is packed with info but only 22 pages.  The Flathead is apparently working with a wide groups of folks to develop cross boundary PODs and PCLs,   Yay, Flathead!

The Flathead National Forest hosted multiple forest wide meetings between the spring of 2022 and spring of 2023 with a robust group of cooperators, partners, and adjacent national forests to develop cross boundary potential operational delineations (PODs) and potential control lines (PCLs). The Flathead Fuel Break project was developed in response to this cross-boundary POD and PCL collaboration. A total of three fuel breaks were selected to be included in this project that were identified as priority fuel reduction locations to strategically manage future large fires.