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National Fire Plan Success Story

Garden Creek Fuels Reduction
West of Round Valley and Challis, Idaho
2007

Picture of an area in the Garden Creek fuels reduction project area.
Garden Creek fuels reduction project area.

This fuels reduction project is located on the Challis-Yankee Fork Ranger District of the Salmon-Challis National Forest in the municipal watershed for Challis, Idaho. The project is in second growth Douglas-fir stands that were cut over in the late 1800s. Fire behavior modeling indicated that a wildfire even on a normal summer day (50th percentile weather), once established, would become a plume dominated crown fire threatening the private residences abutting the Forest. The project is reducing hazardous fuels, enhancing wildlife habitats (especially aspen stands) and helping protect the municipal watershed. A thinning and slash treatment contract has been let and the first year's work has been completed. Slash piles will be burned next fall after drying. The thinning contract was developed to take place over three years so as not to put all the slash on the ground in one year. One hundred thirty one acres were thinned this year with 98 acres each year for the next two years under contract.

The spring prescribed burning window was lost for this project while working through the Objection process and snow was received on the area at the end of September. The District was able to begin the prescribe burning along the Forest boundary in November and has accomplished 200 acres. As weather conditions allow the area to come into compliance with the burn prescription more underburning will occur.

In the Custer County - Idaho Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Mitigation Plan under Specific Implementation Projects in the Executive Summary, it states, "Plan and/or implement Fuels Reduction in the Municipal Watershed of Challis". This project was developed to address this request as well as a priority in the National Fire Plan. The overall project will treat 327 acres through thinning, 4,342 acres of prescribed burning and 15 acres through a timber sale. The project is expected to take from 5 to 10 years depending on receiving proper burning conditions to meet our objectives. Prescribed burning will be accomplished with force account. When the project is complete, fire behavior modeling indicates a wildfire, except under extreme conditions will not transition into a plume dominated crown fire. This will help protect the municipal watershed, the surrounding community, and allow firefighters to attack a wildfire under safer conditions.

Contact: John Fowler, (208) 879-4100, jfowler@fs.fed.us