Kootenai Fuels Reduction Project implementation – Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District

Release Date: Jul 22, 2019

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, July 22, 2019 – Visitors to the English Point Recreation Area and Canfield Butte are likely to see scattered piles of brush, branches and thinned trees. This work is part of the Kootenai Fuels Reduction Project to decrease surface and ladder fuels in an effort to reduce the threat of wildfire in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). 

Approximately 118 acres have been completed around the perimeter of the English Point Recreation Area, with more fuel reduction work to be completed in the future. Thinning, pruning, and piling work is also occurring around the top of Canfield Butte to protect emergency services communications and other infrastructure. Additional fuel reduction work is occurring on the boundary of National Forest System lands adjacent to private property in the Canfield area.

Fuels reduction work consists of contract crews conducting non-commercial hand thinning, pruning, and piling. Until Forest Service crews can burn the piles in the fall, the piles are covered so that they will remain dry for a more effective burn. Similar to any prescribed fire operation, the piles will only be burned when smoke dispersion conditions and transport winds will reduce smoke impacts.

The Kootenai Fuel Reduction project is a multi-year project that will treat approximately 3,000 acres in the WUI of Kootenai County. Fuel reduction work helps limit the spread of uncontrolled wildfires that can threaten values such as property and structures on both public and private land. For more information on this project, please contact the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger Station at (208) 664-2318.

 

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