Helena Lewis and Clark Forest Proposes Prescribed Burns Through 2045

The Helena Lewis and Clark National Forest announced a broad draft decision on November 13 to adopt a Forestwide Prescribed Fire Project designed to reduce hazardous fuels across large portions of the forest. The plan would authorize a combination of fuels treatments including thinning and prescribed burns, with prescribed fire used on up to 40,000 acres per year through 2045 in selected locations while excluding wilderness and other specially protected areas.

Forest leaders framed the proposal as an effort to restore a more historical fire regime. Forest Supervisor Emily Platt told reporters that the historical fire regime burned roughly 100,000 acres a year, and that current managed burning and fuels treatments combined fall well below that figure. The draft decision moves away from isolated projects toward a broader management framework, giving managers more flexibility to address problematic fuel continuity and mortality across the landscape.

Initial work under the draft decision may concentrate in areas familiar to local residents, including the Elkhorns between Townsend and Boulder and the Judith River country. The Forest Service emphasized that not every acre within the project area would be treated, but that treatments would target locations where fuels reduction most effectively lowers wildfire risk. The agency also said it will coordinate smoke management and work with state partners in an effort to minimize impacts to the public.

The draft decision opened a 45 day objection period, creating a formal window for public review and administrative challenge. That period presents an opportunity for local governments, landowners, recreation users and other stakeholders to raise concerns or seek modifications before the Forest Service moves to implementation. The agency also posted the full draft decision on its website for public access.

For Lewis and Clark County residents the proposal carries a mix of potential benefits and tradeoffs. On the benefit side, larger scale prescribed burning and thinning aim to reduce the potential for high severity fires that threaten homes, infrastructure and recreation resources. On the tradeoff side, prescribed fire can produce smoke and may require temporary closures or restrictions in recreation areas during operations, even as the agency seeks to manage those impacts.

Institutionally the project represents a notable shift in forest management strategy, from project by project work to a landscape scale approach that could streamline decision making and allow coordinated treatments across multiple ownerships. That shift raises questions about transparency, monitoring and long term funding, issues that local officials and civic groups are likely to scrutinize during the objection period.

The draft decision is a consequential step in how the region will manage wildfire risk in the coming decades, and residents are advised to review the Forest Service posting and consider participation in the administrative process while the objection window remains open.