Grant Application Ranks Nationally for Wildland Urban Interface Funding
JUNE 2021 - The Stillwater Valley is comprised of dry ponderosa pine forests and open rangelands being encroached by juniper and Douglas-fir, as well as higher elevation mixed conifer forests. Several large wildfires, most significantly the Derby Fire of 2006, have threatened private lands and developments in the area in recent years. Vegetative fuel conditions are dangerous because of low precipitation, overstocked forests, and blowdown-aftermath. Slope steepness, windy conditions and lack of access roads make firefighting in many areas particularly difficult/dangerous.
The intent of the Upper Stillwater Watershed Hazardous Fuels Mitigation Project is to reduce hazardous fuel conditions around the communities in the Stillwater River watershed. Areas in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) around the communities of Absarokee, Fishtail, Dean, Nye, Roscoe and Columbus will the focus.
The WUI areas are characterized by extreme wind-driven fire behavior, rural residential development with poor ingress and egress, and limited fire response capacity. Rural fire districts share fire protection with the USFS, DNRC and BLM. Communities in the area are also popular seasonal recreation destinations intermixed with working farms and ranches. The project provides homeowners with cost-share assistance for fuels reduction projects, prevention and mitigation materials, and continuing education regarding wildland fire.
This project will complement adjacent fuel treatments on past WUI funded areas as well as federal and private lands to establish stand-replacing fire resistant landscapes and maximize the scale of treatments for community-wide protection. The cooperation of this type of cross-boundary fuel mitigation directly reduces the fire risk on individual properties, in addition to properties and communities adjacent to treated areas. Furthermore, past experience on adjacent projects indicates efforts to reduce fire risk and restore fire adapted landscapes on private lands is a driving force that strengthens planning processes for future fuel reduction and restoration projects on adjacent public land.
The intent of the Upper Stillwater Watershed Hazardous Fuels Mitigation Project is to reduce hazardous fuel conditions around the communities in the Stillwater River watershed. Areas in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) around the communities of Absarokee, Fishtail, Dean, Nye, Roscoe and Columbus will the focus.
The WUI areas are characterized by extreme wind-driven fire behavior, rural residential development with poor ingress and egress, and limited fire response capacity. Rural fire districts share fire protection with the USFS, DNRC and BLM. Communities in the area are also popular seasonal recreation destinations intermixed with working farms and ranches. The project provides homeowners with cost-share assistance for fuels reduction projects, prevention and mitigation materials, and continuing education regarding wildland fire.
This project will complement adjacent fuel treatments on past WUI funded areas as well as federal and private lands to establish stand-replacing fire resistant landscapes and maximize the scale of treatments for community-wide protection. The cooperation of this type of cross-boundary fuel mitigation directly reduces the fire risk on individual properties, in addition to properties and communities adjacent to treated areas. Furthermore, past experience on adjacent projects indicates efforts to reduce fire risk and restore fire adapted landscapes on private lands is a driving force that strengthens planning processes for future fuel reduction and restoration projects on adjacent public land.