Fuel Reduction Project resumes near Hayden
The Kootenai Fuel Reduction Project will resume next week on about 174 acres of Idaho Panhandle National Forests just east of Hayden Lake and south of Hayden Creek.
COEUR d'ALENE — The Kootenai Fuel Reduction Project is scheduled to resume next week on about 174 acres of Idaho Panhandle National Forest just east of Hayden Lake and south of Hayden Creek.
The project’s goals are to reduce wildfire danger in the wildland-urban interface by thinning excess woody materials on the ground or in the forest understory or canopy that can increase the severity of fire, according to a press release.
There are over 1,200 structures within a half mile of the treatment areas.
"The locations within this project focus on the highest priority areas to reduce potential fire behavior and potential future losses to wildfire," wrote Patrick Lair, Forest Service spokesman in Coeur d'Alene.
The U.S. Forest Service plans to issue a temporary closure on recreational shooting in the immediate area beginning today to avoid potentially imminent harm caused by shooting in the direction of contractors.
The unit includes the popular Hayden Creek shooting pit on Forest Service Road 437, about 4 miles southeast of U.S. 95. Employees will be working in the woods immediately downrange from the shooting area.
The unit extends south from Hayden Creek nearly to Hudlow Mountain and runs east nearly to Stump Creek.
Fuel treatments in this area will begin with non-commercial thinning, pruning and piling, followed by pile burning. Work is expected to last from two to four weeks. All associated closures will be lifted as soon as work is finished.
The Kootenai Fuel Reduction Project began in 2018. Since then, around 1,200 acres of a planned 2,995 acres that are adjacent to private land, structures and high-value communications infrastructure have been treated.
Fuel reduction work helps limit the spread of uncontrolled wildfires that can threaten values, such as property and structures, on both public and private land. It will also help to facilitate wildfire suppression activities in the future and create safer working conditions for wildland firefighters and first responders.
Thus far, units have been successfully completed focusing on the Canfield Butte Area, where several communication sites are located, as well as English Point Recreational Area. Additional phases will continue this field season on both the western and eastern sides of Kootenai County.