It turns out a wildfire (see above photo) burning toward homes in the timber of western Montana did not make a destructive run many feared. Why? It lacked the fuel needed to grow because it burned into the perimeter of a forest management project conducted seven years earlier.
The Westside Collaborative Management Project used a combination of commercial logging, forest thinning and prescribed burning across 2,300 acres of Bitterroot National Forest, Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and private lands. The goal was to manage fuel loads to reduce the risk of wildfire, provide lumber to boost the economy and increase the diversity of vegetation, which means improved wildlife habitat.
“We thin the forest so our trees are more spread out, and we selected the best trees that had the most fire resilience and the best health,” Amy Campbell, Bitterroot National Forest silviculturist, told KPAX-TV. “By spreading, opening up the canopy and reducing the ladder fuels and the density of that canopy, we’re able to create conditions where the fire, which started on the bottom below us, was able to run up the slope but stay on the ground,” Campbell said.
Forest management projects slowing or stopping wildfires is nothing new. In 2014, the San Juan fire burned its way through the White Mountains in Arizona, threatening the small town of Vernon, when it ran into a series of forest thinning projects sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and is partners. The flames slowed in speed and intensity, allowing firefighters to make a successful stand.
In 2016, the Cold fire tore through the Black Hills National Forest in the western part of South Dakota. One rancher feared it may destroy his home. Instead, flames dropped in length because the fire hit a 2014 RMEF prescribed burn project and firefighters stopped it.
The Westside Collaborative Management Project did not use RMEF grant funding, but RMEF has a long and active history in the area, having completed over two dozen conservation or habitat enhancement projects across the region.
Most recently, in 2024-2025, U.S. Forest Service and RMEF funding supported a series of prescribed burns across 3,151 acres on the Bitterroot National Forest (see photo below) designed to reduce the risk of high-intensity fires, increase the quality and quantity of forage, and improve overall forest health – all good news for elk, mule deer, moose, bighorn sheep, black bears, wild turkeys and other wildlife species that call the landscape home, as well as for hunting, wildlife viewing and infrastructure protection.
(Photo credit: Inciweb)
