Forest Management

To maintain diversity in forest vegetation age classes, foresters use active management techniques across the Bighorn National Forest excluding Cloud Peak Wilderness, Rock Creek Recommended Wilderness, and Roadless Areas. Active management includes mechanical harvests that are accomplished with timber sales, hand thinning and piling followed by burning of the piles, and prescribed burning of vegetation.  Wood products generated from timber sales also help maintain a timber industry that provides a supply of products to the American public and beyond.  Forests with a diversity of vegetation age classes are more resilient after natural disturbances such as wildfire, insects, and disease. That means healthy forests are less likely to have severe effects from disturbances in terms of the size of the disturbance and the associated impacts to soils and watersheds that could decrease water quality as well as other negative outcomes. 

To learn more about projects and the Bighorn National Forest Revised Land and Resource Management Plan, visit our planning page.