HELENA — Two national forests in Montana will receive more than $8 million to expand work to confront the wildfire crisis.
“Well, the first is being able to put people in those areas safely to respond to the fire. Second is minimizing the impacts of any future wildfire to these communities and lands. And then third is to restore health to these landscapes because we have such heavy, hazardous fuels in the area right now,” says Kathy Bushnell, Helena District Ranger for the U.S. Forest Service.
Funds will support the Bozeman Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Project on the Custer-Gallatin National Forest and the West Zone Heavy Fuels Project on the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.
The funding comes from the hazardous fuels funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.
The funds for the Custer-Gallatin National Forest will bolster previous restoration work to treat additional areas of high wildfire risk where national forests and grasslands meet homes and communities, known as the Wildland-Urban Interface.
Funds for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest will reduce the amount of dead and dying trees caused by pine beetle outbreaks. These trees create above-average hazardous fuels. $3.3 million will be used in the Helena and Lincoln districts to do this using machinery and prescribed burning.
Bushnell says this money will be used to target key areas such as the Ten Mile Watershed which provides water for thousands of people.
“Those are prioritized because of the critical values, which is the municipal watershed, the private property, and the amount of hazardous fuels in those areas to then minimize a threat to those communities in those areas should a wildfire come into the area,” says Bushnell.
