Planned burns send up smoke

From the U.S. Forest Service

SEELEY LAKE -- If locals saw plumes of smoke rising from south of town last week, they needn’t worry.

Firefighters across the Lolo National Forest were scheduled to perform fall prescribed burning to reduce hazardous fuels, restore wildlife habitat, and better protect communities from future wildfires.

The burns were schedules to begin Oct. 3, as long as wind conditions were favorable.

Favorable conditions include correct parameters for temperature, wind, fuel moisture, and ventilation for smoke.

When prescription criteria is met, firefighters implement, monitor, and patrol each burn to ensure it meets forest health and public safety goals.

Both underburning and pile burning will be conducted this fall in previous treatment areas.

Underburning, a type of prescribed fire treatment, ignites vegetation under the forest canopy and focuses on the consumption of surface fuels. Frequent, low-intensity underburning is essential for improving habitat conditions for wildlife by regenerating fire-adapted vegetation and encouraging the growth of new forage for wildlife browse. Additionally, prescribed fires help to reduce crown fire potential by eliminating dead and diseased vegetation and ladder fuels. Ladder fuels provide opportunity for a surface fire to move into the tree canopy creating a ‘crown fire.’ Crown fires are much more difficult to control.

All prescribed burns comply with Montana air quality standards and coordinated with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the appropriate county health departments to reduce the impacts of smoke to neighbors, cooperators, and surrounding communities.

For more information, follow the Lolo National Forest on Facebook or on Twitter at @LoloNF.drainages.