Wildfire Adapted Missoula

In 2016, a group of local agency representatives met and convened the Cohesive Strategy Work Group (CSWG); an interagency group with the desire to work on the three aspects of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy- Forest Resilience, Fire Adapted Communities, and Coordinated Response. Shortly after, Missoula County completed a revision of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) in the spring of 2018, with significant assistance from the U.S. Forest Service Fire Lab.

Wildfire Adapted Missoula (WAM) is a wildfire risk-based strategic fuels management project designed to implement the Missoula County CWPP and encompasses 455,787 total acres (multi-jurisdictional), 177,229 of which are Lolo National Forest system lands. The treatments proposed in this project would only occur on National Forest system lands.

In recent years, we all have witnessed and been impacted by wildfires and smoke that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres across Montana and the west and exhibited unprecedented fire behavior due to increasingly longer, hotter and drier fire seasons and the large accumulation of hazardous fuels. According to Wildfire Risk Org, populated areas in Missoula County have, on average, greater wildfire risk than 84% of counties in Montana. Additionally, 58% of populated areas in Missoula County could be exposed to wildfire from indirect sources, such as embers or home-to-home ignition, while 32% could be directly exposed.

A wildfire risk assessment, developed in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service Fire Lab, indicates that many immediate areas around Missoula including Blue Mountain and Grant Creek are at risk of high or severe wildfire events in the future. Wildfire hazard is determined based on proximity of critical infrastructure, water supplies, transportation corridors, fuels, terrain, and facilities. Human safety risk factors are based on population density, critical egress, and fire response capabilities.

The areas identified in the Wildfire Adapted Missoula project meet the criteria for high to very high wildfire hazard based on location to population centers, neighborhoods, and critical infrastructure. The goal of this project is to tackle this problem head-on through vegetation treatments that would reduce the risk to communities and first responders by removing the fuel and creating a healthier, more resilient forest.

The project boundary was informed by the 2016 Cohesive Strategy Work Group and the 2018 Missoula County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Additionally, mapping and wildfire hazard modeling was supported by the U.S. Forest Service Fire Lab. Using these plans and tools a 455,787-acre area surrounding the Missoula valley was identified in need of some degree of wildfire risk reduction fuel treatments.

There are several ongoing ‘demonstration projects’ within the Wildfire Adapted Missoula project boundary where work is occurring. Demonstration projects include the Grant Creek Fuels Reduction project, Pattee Canyon Maintenance project, and the Marshall Woods Forest Restoration project. These existing projects build upon partner efforts on private and county lands.

In short, "all-hands, all-lands" means we are striving to work across jurisdictional boundaries with local, private, tribal, federal, county and state partners to achieve landscape restoration goals in a broader and more effective way instead of tackling the problem by ourselves. Wildfire does not know boundaries, so working together is the only way to make a difference on a larger scale.

While the WAM project applies treatments on National Forest Lands only, WAM is also an initiative that welcomes partners to share stewardship of the restoration of the lands and work toward creative solutions to reduce wildfire hazard together through information sharing, raising awareness about available resources, home hardening programs, and public and private-land treatments.

Wildfire could adversely impact area residents and visitors throughout Missoula County in many ways, including through damage to natural resources and scenery, evacuations, long‐duration smoke events, potential neighborhood or infrastructure damage or losses, and declines in business activity and tourism revenue.

Both operational experience and scientific research have shown that properly planned fuel treatments can significantly impact fire behavior and severity, thereby reducing the potential for adverse impacts to the community. Additionally, when forests are healthy, they can more easily resist disease and insects. Fuels treatments are designed to mimic natural processes in fire-adapted ecosystems, increasing ecological resilience to these destructive processes.

No, the project targets unhealthy, diseased trees, or younger trees leaving mature, healthy trees in treatment areas to maintain overstory and the beauty and aesthetics of the area. The treatments will eliminate ladder fuels (understory and low-lying branches) and younger trees that are creating competition for nutrients and resources.

Although no changes to public motorized access are proposed to implement these treatments, at the WAM project scale, both temporary and permanent road construction to support project implementation would occur for administrative/non-public motorized use. Additionally, 0.4 miles of existing trail would be added to the National Forest System to facilitate future prescribed burning activities, and the removal of eight miles of unneeded, non-system road is proposed to reduce undesirable resource impacts and impacts on watersheds.

The first decision from the WAM Environmental Assessment authorizes vegetation treatments on 15,887 acres in the Blue Mountain Area of the WAM project. Implementation began in 2024 for some units. A separate decision for the rest of the project area is expected in 2025. Implementation is planned to occur over a 20-year time period. Once all decisions are final, work will take place throughout the project boundary depending on current ecological conditions, wildfire risk, capacity, and funding, with an ongoing commitment to communication and public involvement throughout the life of the project.

To reduce wildfire risk and create areas where firefighters can engage wildfire, a combination of actions are proposed including non-mechanized and mechanized wildfire risk reduction fuel treatments, prescribed burning, and shaded fuel breaks. While no changes to public access are proposed, this project includes road and trail proposals for project implementation, facilitating future first responder access and evacuation routes, and removing unneeded roads from the transportation system to reduce undesirable resource impacts, and offset project impacts on watersheds.

Non-mechanized Wildfire Risk Reduction Fuel Treatments:

• Small tree thinning and prescribed burning
• Hand thinning, piling and prescribed burning
• Hand thinning and prescribed burning
• Prescribed fire
• Grassland and meadow restoration

Mechanized Wildfire Risk Reduction Fuel Treatments:

• Hand thinning and prescribed burning plus incidental mechanized fuel treatment
• Mechanized thinning and prescribed burning
• Shaded fuel break
• Biomass removal

It will look similar to wildfire hazard reduction work that has been ongoing within the WAM project boundary for many years in the Rattlesnake, Marshall Canyon, and Pattee Canyon areas. These demonstration areas are good examples of what treatments look like after they are completed. In general, the low elevation forested areas around Missoula will be more open, with ponderosa pine and western larch trees spaced out.

Overall, no, although some short-term closures could affect access while implementing treatments. For example, a trail may be temporarily closed for several days while a prescribed burn is conducted in an area. Similar treatments implemented in the past few years in the Rattlesnake, Marshall Canyon, and Pattee Canyon have resulted in very minimal closures.

The Lolo National Forest team is working through planning steps for the rest of the WAM project area. The project was split into what we anticipate being two decisions, to expedite planning and implementation of important wildfire risk reduction work and to improve clarity and communication for a large and complex project. We are committed to meeting the original goals of this landscape-scale project, and are currently aiming for a decision for the rest of the WAM landscape in 2025.

Check back on this page for more information. This webpage will be updated with additional information as implementation occurs.