Some fire-related trail closures on the Spotted Bear Ranger District were lifted early this week, but officials with Flathead National Forest urge visitors to check conditions before venturing into the woods.

The Schafer Creek Trail 327 and the main South Fork Trail 80 are now open.

Trail Creek Trail 731 and Green Mountain Loop Trails 238 and 75 are still at least partly closed.

For updated trail closures and day-to-day reports on trail conditions, call the Spotted Bear Ranger Station at (406) 758-5376.

Maps showing updated trail closures can be found by visiting fs.usda.gov/flathead and clicking the “Fire Incident Information” link in the center of the page.

More than 90,000 acres burned in the Bear Creek and Trail Creek fires this summer, prompting closures of many heavily used trails in the Spotted Bear area.

Forest Service employees and workers contracted from other agencies and organizations have stayed busy rehabilitating areas impacted by the wildfires, which burned out many of the root systems that hold the trails in place.

However, travelers need to check conditions beforehand and stay alert for remaining hazard trees that can topple over in the wind, holes in the trail bed, falling boulders and slumping sections of trail.

“We’re encouraging people to call the district before they go out because it’s a burn area,” forest spokeswoman Teresa Wenum said Tuesday. “It’s OK for travel, but they just want people to be careful.”

She added that lateral trails branching off from main thoroughfares likely are impassable since trail crews were only able to focus on reopening the main trails this season and work is winding down as winter weather has begun moving into the area.

Spotted Bear Ranger Station will remain open through the rest of the hunting season.

East of the Divide, in the portion of the wilderness managed by the Lewis and Clark National Forest, fire-related closures were lifted Tuesday.

In a press release, Rocky Mountain Ranger District officials reminded visitors to exercise caution when using trails in areas burned by the Rocky Mountain Complex of fires.

For updated trail information for the Lewis and Clark Forest, call (406) 466-5341 or (406) 562-3247.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.