Regional prescribed burns contingent on rain

Rain, with additional precipitation predicted in the near future — those are the meteorological conditions that would help set the stage for specialists with Flathead National Forest to launch regional prescribed fire operations.

“It’s just a plan until we get the right weather conditions,” said R. J. Hannah, a fuels specialist with the U.S. Forest Service.

Toby Thompson of the Hungry Horse/Glacier View Ranger Districts offered a similar observation when talking about a burn planned for the Red Whale Creek drainage about 4 miles northwest of Polebridge.

“We need some moisture up there now,” he said Friday. “We’re hoping that during the next few days we get some rain coming in.”

Prescribed burn advocates cite a host of potential benefits of intentionally setting fires in forests and other habitat where fire might be aggressively suppressed during the parched peak of wildfire season.

Prescribed burns can help reduce fuels that have accumulated during decades of fire suppression on national forests. They can help reverse encroachment by conifers on forest openings, an intervention that can benefit elk and other wildlife. They can help support diversity in tree species and other vegetation.

A 2016 technical review commissioned by The Wildlife Society of the effects of prescribed burns concluded that prescribed fire “is an important management resource tool that can be effective at maintaining or enhancing habitats for many species of wildlife.”

This week, Flathead National Forest announced plans to conduct prescribed burns in areas of the ranger districts at Tally Lake, Swan Lake, Spotted Bear and Hungry Horse/Glacier View.

Depending on weather, the Red Whale Creek burn could occur in late September to early October. The Forest Service said the burn is designed to reduce hazardous fuels to lessen wildfire risk and to support any future efforts to fight such fires. The burn should also improve wildlife habitat, the agency said.

The Spotted Bear River Project burn will involve about 500 acres northeast of the Spotted Bear Ranger Station. Among other impacts, the burn could support regeneration of the ponderosa pine and improve wildlife habitat.

Hannah said it seems that more people have come to understand that fire plays an important natural role in many ecosystems and that past campaigns to suppress all fire have, among other impacts, contributed to the intensity of modern wildfires.

The Forest Service said the burn projects will be coordinated with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to reduce the impact of smoke on individuals and communities.

For more information about the prescribed burn activity, go to: www.fs.usda.gov/detail/flathead/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD595711