Middle Fork thinning project

The Flathead National Forest is accepting bids for the Slippery Bill Stewardship timber sale through July 8.

This is the second and last timber sale implementing the Middle Fork Fuels Reduction Program, which was authorized in April 2010 to reduce wildfire risk to the wildland urban interface.

The fuels reduction project is located along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River corridor from Moccasin Creek to near Marias Pass, bounded to the east by Skyland Creek, to the north by the Middle Fork, to the south and west by the Great Bear Wilderness, and to the west by Moccasin Creek.

The project calls for mechanical or hand treatments to about 974 acres, including 622 acres of prescribed burning, to meet fuels reduction objectives and create a mosaic of vegetation conditions to benefit wildlife. About 2 million to 3 million board feet of merchantable material was slated for harvesting.

The cost of the stewardship work will be offset by timber harvesting. The Slippery Bill sale calls for harvesting 18,146 tons of spruce and other species for sawtimber, 3,087 tons of lodgepole pine for sawtimber and 5,736 tons of non-sawtimber.

For more information on the Middle Fork Fuels Reduction Program, visit online at www.fs.usda.gov/projects/flathead/landmanagement/projects and look for “archives.”