SWAN VALLEY - Chip Weber, Flathead National Forest Supervisor, signed the final decision for the Glacier Loon Fuels Reduction and Forest Health Project. The project area is located on the Swan Lake Ranger District, in the Swan River Valley, south and west of Condon on the west side of Montana Highway 83 to the south end of Lindbergh Lake. All management activities included in the decision occur on National Forest System lands within Missoula County.
A summary of the actions in the decision include the following:
• Vegetation treatments (logging, sapling thinning, will occur on 1,397 acres of National Forest System lands. Treatments will include approximately 1,157 acres of fuels reduction in the wildland urban interface (WUI) and 240 acres outside the WUI using a variety of treatment methods.
• Best management practices will be implemented on approximately 29.3 miles of haul routes and on approximately 5.9 miles of temporary roads that will be constructed. Temporary roads will be reclaimed following their use.
• Road decommissioning will occur on an estimated 8.4 miles of roads.
• Hand planting will occur on approximately 305 acres.
This project recently completed the pre-decisional administrative review process pursuant to 36 CFR 218. Four objections to the project were received. In response to these objections, the acting deputy regional forester issued two instructions to the Forest.
A discussion on these instructions and how they were addressed can be found in the final decision notice. A copy of the final decision is available online at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=36946.
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