SHOSHONE, Idaho - Working alongside the Shoshone BLM, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) recently implemented a fuels reduction project that would potentially reduce the risk of wildfire spreading from roadside starts along Highway 75 south of Shoshone. ITD planted over 330 acres within the right of way with short-statured, perennial vegetation. The new vegetation is expected to be less likely to carry fire and easier to mow to maintain low fuel loads. Additionally, ITD plans to use herbicide treatments in the future to control invasive annual plants like cheatgrass, once the seeding has established.
Last summer’s Antelope and Shoestring fires burned nearly five miles of right of way along Highway 75, which provided an opportunity to change the vegetation structure.
“Our partnership with the ITD gets us to a place both parties want to go, and that is improving public safety in the light of the kind of fires we saw first-hand last summer," said Codie Martin, the Shoshone BLM Field Manager. “When we have highly flammable fuels growing right up against roads, then those roads are compromised as fire breaks. This project aims to change that."
ITD entered into a fire assistance agreement with the Twin Falls District BLM to assist in the reduction of hazardous fuels along Idaho highways. The program seeks to reduce or eliminate the ignition and spread of wildfire along roadsides, protect natural resources, and reduce the risk of wildfire to communities and firefighters.
For more information about the BLM Twin Falls District’s fire rehabilitation efforts this past fall, check out this video: YouTube
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
