Montana may see an above-average wildfire season this year, and the state’s governor is calling for decisive and proactive efforts to find a solution.
Risk factors including insect outbreaks, plant disease and plant death have led to heavy-fuel loading, which puts much of the state’s forests at risk for wildfire damage. Close to 32,000 acres of land have already burned in the state, mostly resulting from human-caused fires. In 2017, 740,000 acres burned and led to approximately $74 million in damages.
One fire near Willow Creek has currently burned approximately 350 acres, but is not growing in size.
“Given the forest health crisis here in Montana, I call on all of us around this table to get more private, state, tribal and federal acres into active forest management to reduce the risk facing our communities,” said Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte.
To limit the destruction that these wildfire risks pose, Gianforte wishes to double the amount of treated forest acres within the state, and called on the National Park Service to extinguish all existing wildfires in Montana.
According to a DNR spokesperson, 11,000 acres were treated in Montana through thinning, logging and prescribed burns of natural lands. This year, the agency aims to treat 25,000 acres.
“We watched the cabins burn around Lake McDonald because there was not aggressive initial attack. This is a follow-on discussion," Gianforte said.
