Swan Lake Ranger District to host open house for Wild Cramer and Fuels Reduction
The Swan Lake Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest is holding an open house on Sept. 26 from 4-7 p.m. at the Swan Lake Ranger District, 200 Ranger Station Road, Bigfork, to field questions about the draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Wild Cramer Forest Health and Fuels Reduction Project.
The project area is located within the Island Unit, an aggregation of National Forest System lands entirely surrounded by private and State lands, lying approximately 10 miles south of Kalispell and two miles west of Flathead Lake. The Wild Cramer Forest Health and Fuels Reduction Project has the following primary purposes:
• Improve and/or maintain the general health, resiliency, and sustainability of forest stands and reduce the risk of insect epidemics and severe disease infestations within the project area.
• Reduce forest fuels build-up adjacent to public and private lands. This would help to provide a safer environment for the public and firefighters should a wildfire occur within the area and increase the probability of stopping wildfires on NFS lands before they burn onto private lands.
• Provide wood products for local communities and to the local timber industry, contributing to short-term timber supply and providing for long-term sustainability of timber on NFS lands.
A secondary purpose would benefit public recreation by addressing forest health issues within the Blacktail Mountain Ski Area permit boundary.
The DEIS includes a no-action alternative, alternative 1, and four action alternatives. The action alternatives evaluate the potential effects of varying degrees of tree harvesting, thinning, prescribed burning, and hazardous fuels reduction activities.
The comment period on the Wild Cramer Forest Health and Fuels Reduction Project DEIS ends on Oct. 9. The 45-day comment period commenced with the publication of the notice of availability in the Federal Register on Aug. 24.
Copies of the DEIS are available at the Swan Lake Ranger District office in Bigfork, at the Supervisor’s Office in Kalispell, or at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/flathead/projects. For more information, contact project leader Michele Draggoo at 387-3827.