Wildfire fuel reduction at Beaver Lake approved

A fuel reduction project on about 200 acres of Forest Service land north of Beaver Lake has been approved and could begin this year. The goal of the project is to reduce forest fuels and make the area more resilient to wildland fire.

The project area is about four miles west of Whitefish in an area managed by the Tally Lake Ranger District.

Residents in the Elkhorn Subdivision west of Whitefish had expressed concern about the condition of hazardous fuels near their homes. Fire reduction projects have taken place in the area including the Beaver Lake South project in 2010.

“I believe that the actions I am authorizing with this decision, coupled with fuel reduction and other efforts on private property, will reduce potential fire intensities, improve the opportunity for wildland fire suppression, and lessen the potential for wildland fires on federal land to spread to private property,” forest supervisor Chip Weber noted in his decision notice.

About 67 acres of commercial timber harvest and 122 acres of non-commercial activity is planned. The timber harvest will yield about 400,000 board feet of forest products.

Trees will be removed that most contribute to ladder fuels and continuous forest canopy cover. The largest trees of more fire-tolerant species will not be removed.

The non-commercial activity will consist of about 83 acres of mechanical or hand understory fuels reduction and 39 acres of prescribed burning without timber harvest.

Fuel reduction and timber harvest activities could begin this year and continuing for three years. Prescribed burning would be completed before 2018.

Signs will be posted at the access points to the Whitefish Trail for that section of the trail where work is taking place.

A little more than a half-mile of an existing road will be temporarily opened and improved. No new roads will be needed. Logging trucks will use Beaver Lake Road.