Butte BLM prescribed burns on horizon for Broadwater, Beaverhead counties
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Melrose in spring 2017. (BLM Photo)
(BUTTE, Mont.) – The Bureau of Land Management’s Butte Field Office plans to conduct two prescribed burns near Townsend and Wise River in the upcoming months.
In Broadwater County, crews from the field office will burn 455 acres three miles northwest of Townsend in the Indian Creek area sometime in mid-March. The primary objectives of the planned burn treatment are to reduce conifers that are expanding into shrub and grassland habitat, and to promote habitat biodiversity
Another unit to be burned later in the spring is in Beaverhead County, four miles southwest of Wise River in the Harriet Lou area. This unit is 50 acres and is designed to reduce slash after a timber harvest.
The timing of the burns depends on weather and fuel conditions. Generally, the spring prescribed burning season concludes in June due to vegetation green-up.
The prescribed burns will be implemented and closely monitored by fire managers and firefighters from the BLM, the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
For more information about the burns, contact Greg Campbell at the Butte Field Office at (406) 533-7600.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.