The Bridger-Teton National Forest will implement a vegetation management project near Togwotee Lodge on the Blackrock Ranger District in the summer and fall of 2019. District Ranger Todd Stiles signed the decision authorizing 250-acres of fuels reduction through timber harvest, and pile burning in the project area which is located approximately 15-miles east of Moran, Wyoming, just north and adjacent to U.S. Highway 26/287.

The purpose of this project is to create more resilient conifer stands, reduce fuel load and potential wildfire impacts to the nearby Togwotee Lodge and associated improvements that are adjacent to the forest.

The majority of forested stands in the project area have surface and canopy fuels that could sustain both high-severity and crown fire behavior. Due to natural tree mortality and the recent insect epidemic there exists large amounts of dead fuel, both down and standing, in the project area, resulting in heavy fuel loading conditions that can contribute to uncontrollable fire behavior.

“By reducing the fuels now it gives us greater flexibility for not ‘if’, but ‘when’ we get a fire in that area,” said Stiles. “Besides improving the health of the Forest, this is an opportunity to provide for firefighter safety by reducing the fuel loading,” he said.