Plan to reduce fire risk targets Trail Creek area in North Fork

The Daily Inter Lake

The Flathead National Forest is proposing a fuels-reduction project in the Trail Creek area just south of the Canadian border.

The Hungry Horse and Glacier View ranger districts have developed a plan for tree and brush thinning, and prescribed burning on about 1,350 acres.

The project is aimed at reducing forest fuels to lower the risk of high-intensity wildfires. Trail Creek, a tributary to the North Fork Flathead River drainage, has been identified as a high priority "wildland-urban interface" area with a concentration of cabins and homes near national forest lands.

Those structures were threatened by the 2003 Wedge Canyon Fire, which burned 53,315 acres and several buildings south of Trail Creek.

The proposed project would involve mechanical logging on about 350 acres and prescribed burning on about 1,000 acres.

Collaborative planning with Trail Creek and North Fork residents and other interested parties helped shape the proposed project over the last year.

More information about the proposal is available by calling the Hungry Horse Ranger Station at 387-3800.

Initial public comments are encouraged by March 10.