US Forest Service Fast-Tracking Bitterroot National Forest Logging Project in Montana

Deeming it an “emergency action,” US Forest Service Chief Rand Moore announced that the Bitterroot Front Project in the Bitterroot National Forest has been fast-tracked by the federal government, meaning the public cannot formally object to the proposal prior to its approval, according to reporting by the Billings Gazette (8-27-23).

The 143,340-acre logging and burning project spans the length of the Bitterroot Mountains in Montana.

The project is a mixture of commercial logging—including some clearcut logging—noncommercial logging (thinning), and prescribed burning along the length of the Bitterroot’s eastern face, on the west side of the Bitterroot Valley. Bounded by high-mountain wilderness to the west and private property in the valley to the east, the project spans 57 linear miles. The initial proposal unveiling last year also included some recreation enhancements, but those have been removed as part of the emergency action determination.

According to the Billings Gazette, Forest Service officials say the project will reduce wildfire risk on the landscape by reducing fuel loads across the timbered mountain face that looms above private property in the valley below. In addition, they say the project will also enhance the forest for foliage and wildlife by creating forest conditions in the area—conditions that predated widespread logging and full-suppression wildland firefighting.

The Forest Service anticipates 54,046 acres of prescribed burning alone; 35,575 acres of non-commercial logging coupled with prescribed burning for whitebark pine restoration; 27,477 acres of commercial logging with prescribed burning; 16,019 acres of vegetation slashing and burning; and 3,163 acres of non-commercial logging and prescribed burning. Some of those areas could overlap.