Smoke has been rising from the floor of the Kootenai National Forest during the past few weeks, as the United States Forest Service has begun its annual prescribed burning operations.

Every year the agency burns the “understory,” old fuels, seedlings and saplings of undesired tree species and other debris from the forest floor in certain stands in order to promote forest health and restore the fire regime balance to the forest. Forest Supervisor Chris Savage said his crews aim to burn between 8,000 and 10,000 acres of understory each year to protect desired tree stands. As of Friday, Savage said crews have completed about 2,000 acres worth of burning.

“The prescribed burning that we do is just another one of the programs that we have on the forest,” he said. “We really try to improve the forest health through this program. It’s one of those tools we have to keep the forest healthy.”

Most of this season’s burns to date have been in smaller stands in the northern end of the forest, due to wet conditions in the Troy, Libby and Trout Creek districts. The largest burn was in the McGuire Ridge area, which was a 900-acre burn. Crews ignited the blaze using an aerial ignition from a helicopter.

Savage said the prescribed burns in the southern parts of the forest would begin in earnest this week, with drier conditions expected to prevail. Savage said the majority of the burning, due to particulate restrictions, occurs in April, although some burning can be done in March and some may stretch into May. He said the agency expects to have all of this year’s prescribed burns wrapped up by the middle of May.