Missoula District Proposing Tree Planting in Lolo Peak Fire Area
By Moosetrack Megan

Posted: March 19, 2018

The Missoula Ranger District is proposing to plant trees and protect them from animal browsing to reforest land burned during the Lolo Peak Fire of 2017.  The proposed treatments would occur across 7,880 acres within the Lolo Peak Fire area of the Lolo National Forest. Reforesting the burned areas with native tree species (e.g., ponderosa pine and western larch) hastens and enhances the overall recovery process, meets restoration objectives, and establishes a newly-planted native vegetation component trend toward desired future conditions outlined in the Forest Plan.

 

Planting native tree seedlings would also fulfill the Agency’s legal obligations and enhance the overall recovery process.

 

Site preparation may include “scalping” the competing understory vegetation or felling small un-merchantable, undesirable (i.e., diseased) trees to prevent competition with establishing regeneration and reducing potential for pathogen infection and facilitate stand establishment.

 

There will be a combined 30-day scoping and comment period on the proposal.  Comments specific to the proposed actions and/or to individual sites and resources are valuable in helping the Forest Service identify issues and concerns.  Comments can be provided by April 16, 2018 to:  Forrest Parks, Missoula Ranger District, 24 Fort Missoula Road, Missoula, MT 59804.  Electronic comments may be sent to:  comments-northern-lolo-missoula@fs.fed.us.  Office hours, for those who wish to hand deliver comments to the Missoula Ranger District are: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday – Friday (except federal holidays).  Acceptable formats for electronic comments include word perfect, rtf, or MS word.

 

Comments should include:  (1) your name, telephone number and organization, if any; (2) title of the project on which the comment is being submitted; (3) specific facts along with supporting reasons that you believe should be considered; and (4) your signature.  Comments received in response to this solicitation, including names and addresses of those who commented, will be considered part of the public record and may be available for public inspection.  For additional information on the project, please contact Forrest Parks at (406) 329-3954.

 

 

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