Montana Wildfire News

Federal and state land managers in Montana are not yet fully staffed with their usual number of seasonal firefighters. During its hiring process, the U.S. Forest Service has faced the same workforce shortage pressures affecting the private sector.

Potential for significant wildland fire is anticipated to be normal this June, according to the latest forecast from the National Interagency Fire Center. However, that could change later this summer, especially in areas east of the Continental Divide.

Under what’s known as Good Neighbor Authority, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation can carry out logging, thinning and other projects on U.S. Forest Service Land.

The report, spanning several years of data, measured ozone and particle pollution, which are the two most common air pollutants.

The growing national risk of wildfires prompted experts this week to ratchet up the alert system for firefighting resources. It’s a subtle acknowledgment that Montana’s regular wildland fire season is just around the corner.

Interior says its five-year investment in wildfire resilience will help bolster communities and ecosystems against the mounting threat of wildfires.

The three-year project is expected to treat over 10,000 acres of National Forest lands. Much of the work will take place where homes adjoin or intersect with forest land. Treatments will include prescribed fire, commercial timber harvests and non-commercial thinning.

The West Wind Fire in Fergus County is still zero percent contained but was showing minimal fire activity today. Enhanced mapping shows the size of the fire as 10,644 acres, down from an earlier estimate.

High winds, months of drought and record temperatures fueled wildfires in central Montana this week that burned thousands of acres. Dozens of homes, grain elevators and bridges have been lost. MTPR’s Shaylee Ragar talked to some of those impacted by the fires.

Suppression efforts continue on a 30 acre wildfire burning outside Missoula. The investigation into its cause is underway and law enforcement is now asking for the public’s help.