Forest fire risk reduction discussed
Photo by Josh McDonald/ Shoshone County Commissioner Mike Fitzgerald looks on as St. Joe Ranger Matt Davis shows him a future project location.
WALLACE — The Shoshone Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) met with the local U.S. Forest Service rangers to discuss their upcoming projects and happenings throughout Shoshone County within the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.
Phillip Blundell, deputy district ranger, Dan Scaife, the district ranger for the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District, along with Matt Davis, the St. Joe District Ranger, all discussed their various projects with the BOCC on Monday.
While the bulk of Shoshone County is under the watchful eye of the CDA River Ranger District, the southern portion of the county falls under the governance of the St. Joe Ranger District.
And while the work in the St. Joe looks to be of minimal impact, there will be extensive work in the CDA River Ranger District, including multiple prescribed fires and fuel reduction projects.
Most of these projects have the same goals, which Scaife ran through with the BOCC.
“The goals of these projects are pretty similar,” Scaife said. “We want to reduce hazardous fuels in the wildland urban interface (WUI) and establish and maintain long-lived early seral species and resilient forest structure.”
A seral community (or sere) is an intermediate stage found in ecological succession in an ecosystem advancing toward its climax community. In many cases more than one seral stage evolves until climax conditions are attained.
The fuel reduction projects are a little different, but aim to help in a similar fashion to the prescribed burns.
“Our goals are to limit the spread of uncontrolled wildfires across ownerships which threatens values-at-risk,” Scaife said. “This will enhance and facilitate future suppression actions within the WUI, therefore protecting public safety. It will also protect highly valuable communication infrastructure located on National Forest System lands.”
Other projects, including some logging efforts, were also discussed with the BOCC.
The BOCC believes keeping an open line of communication with their local USFS rangers is very important and was appreciative for all of the information they had.
“In addition to the USFS providing the Commissioners and update of ongoing and planned USFS logging activities, the USFS and the County are able to communicate seasonal work that my impact each other’s projects and the general public,” BOCC chairman Mike Fitzgerald said. “The Commissioners believe that these agency discussions are advantageous to all.”
The BOCC meets with the rangers quarterly.
The U.S. Forest Service — Idaho Panhandle National Forests Facebook page regularly posts updates about the projects they are conducting, for more information or to see their scheduled projects visit that page or call Sarah Jerome at (208) 765-7221.