Forest Service releases Granite Fuels Project plans

ST. MARIES — The USDA Forest Service has released an updated plan for the Granite Fuels Project in the St. Joe Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. 

The project area encompasses about 112,000 acres between the North Fork of the Clearwater River and the Upper St. Joe River including the Mallard Larkins Pioneer Area and the Snow Peak Wildlife Management Area, a press release said.

The plan calls for prescribed burning within the project area over the next 10 years to promote healthy forest conditions and improved wildlife habitat, while reducing the threat of severe wildfires, the release said. 

"Low intensity, prescribed burns would be applied to smaller units within the project area to achieve desired forest conditions and improve browsing for big game," the release said. "Prescribed fire would also remove concentrations of the dead and down woody debris that fuel large wildfires."

There is no timber harvest or road construction associated with this project.

Info: www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=66722 and project leader Jennifer Cinq-Mars at jennifer.cinq-mars@usda.gov.