Prescribed burn planned Monday on Big Mountain
A plume of smoke from a prescribed burn rises east of Whitefish Mountain Resort on Tuesday afternoon while a pair of people walk through a field off Denver Street in Whitefish. The Flathead National Forest conducted burns east of the resort as part of the Whitefish Municipal Watershed Fuel Reduction Project and was expected later in the day to conduct burns to the west of the resort as part of the Taylor Hellroaring Project. Both projects are aimed at reducing the risk and severity of future wildfires in the area. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Smoke from a prescribed fire on Big Mountain will be highly visible from across the valley on Monday, Flathead Forest officials said.
The Tally Lake Ranger District is planning to prescribe burn an area directly adjacent to the Whitefish Mountain Resort.
The actual implementation of this burn will be dependent on many factors, including current and expected weather, fuel moisture, and smoke dispersion.
Units to the east of Whitefish Mountain Resort were approved in the Whitefish Municipal Watershed Fuel Reduction Project in 2017. The purpose of these burns is to protect the municipal watershed by introducing prescribed fire that would reduce the chance for high intensity wildfire in the future. In addition to these protections, this burn would increase resilience to insect and disease, improve wildlife species habitat, and aid in the restoration of whitebark pine.
This controlled burn will utilize a helicopter equipped with a helitorch, a device that drops fire into the area to be burned, to accomplish ignition. Firefighters will be on scene and in surrounding areas to aid in implementation.
A temporary closure order will be in effect surrounding the burn.
Fire managers are hoping to accomplish approximately 285 acres of burning approved in the Whitefish Municipal Watershed Fuels Reduction Project. A total of 850 acres were approved in this project with roughly 187 being successfully completed last year.