Forest Service officials announced in a decision notice last week that they will move forward with a forest fuels reduction project that encompasses nearly 5,000 acres in the greater Seeley Lake area.

The undertaking, known as the Westside Bypass Wildfire Resiliency Project, has been several years in the making and aims to address existing forest fuel and forest vegetation conditions that contribute to an increased risk of severe wildfire in the area.

The Seeley-Swan area has experienced sweeping wildfires in recent years, events that have prompted Forest Service officials to zero in on management projects in the densely forested area.

Examples of past blazes include the Jocko Fire in 2007 that burned more than 36,000 acres west from the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribal land onto state and private lands, and 2017 Rice Ridge Fire, which torched nearly 156,000 acres northeast of Seeley Lake. Fires such as these threaten the community of Seeley Lake, the decision notice states.

The new 4,866-acre project area will take place along the western side of the lake and is part of the the wildland-urban interface of the Seeley-Swan Fire Plan, a component of the Missoula County Wildfire Protection Plan.

Project treatments will remove dead and down trees, “ladder fuels” such as tree limbs, and other vegetation to reduce overall wildfire risk and the potential for crown fires, which are known to decrease a firefighter’s ability to engage a wildfire effectively.

According to the decision notice, the plan includes commercial harvest activities on 1,794 acres in 24 separate units in order to promote the growth of trees such as ponderosa pine and western larch — species that are more resistant to local insects, diseases and wildfires.

Several fuels management activities will also occur over nearly 900 acres in 18 separate units, including mulching, underburning and jackpot burning, which is when a fire is intentionally lit and allowed to burn within specified parameters.

Finally, approximately 25 miles of access and haul routes will be needed to implement the project. That includes 17 miles of National Forest System road maintenance on existing routes.

“Many of the roads are currently in good condition and will not need maintenance prior to hauling forest products,” the memo notes. “However, as these roads are used to carry out management activities, continual maintenance will be completed to ensure they are maintained during and following project completion.”

The project will also include about 4.7 miles of new temporary road construction, but will be decommissioned upon completion of commercial vegetation management activities. That means all culverts would be removed, an “effective closure device” would be used to minimize future motorized use, and more.

THERE IS no official start date for the project.

The decision notice states commercial harvesting will not take place until August 2021, but the Forest Service will begin preparing for other non-commercial and non-mechanical fuels management activities “immediately.”

“Implementation of portions of this project could begin as soon as this spring season,” Seeley Lake District Ranger Quinn Carver said in a prepared statement. “There has been a tremendous amount of collaboration on this project for years.”

Project planning was completed in collaboration with local partners such as the Southwestern Crown Collaborative, the Clearwater Resource Council and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC).

The Seeley Lake Ranger District and DNRC are working toward a Good Neighbor Authority Agreement, which would enable the two agencies to integrate staff and expertise to accomplish the plan’s activities through a commercial timber sale. The agreement essentially provides a framework for both agencies to work together to accelerate the pace of fuel reduction and restoration on National Forest Service lands in areas with cross-boundary benefits.

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com