There will be a little “smoke on the water” this spring as the Bureau of Land Management’s Missoula Field Office does some prescribed burning along the Blackfoot River corridor between Johnsrud Park and Riverbend Campground, north of Potomac and west of Highway 200 near Greenough.
Smoke may be visible periodically starting in late March and lasting through early May. When weather and fuel conditions are favorable, multiple units ranging from 20 to 570 acres are planned for prescribed burning. Each of these units will produce smoke for several days and may take several days to complete once started.
These treatments are restoring the historic vegetative conditions characterized by large-diameter ponderosa pine and western larch with intermittent openings of forbs, shrubs, and bunch grasses. These prescribed burns will remove the small “ladder fuels” and down woody debris, which reduces the risk of high-severity wildfires. Firefighters will use both aerial and ground ignition to implement these burns.
For more information, contact BLM Fire Management Specialist Michael Albritton at the Missoula Field Office at (406) 329-3914.
