Teton Interagency Fire

Pinedale, Wyo., December 11, 2024—The Bridger-Teton National Forest plans to conduct a tree thinning project designed to reduce hazardous wildfire fuels near the Big Sandy trailhead in the southern Wind River Range. The project area, approximately 25 miles southeast of Boulder, WY, contains high levels of dead and down fuels due to historic fire suppression, blowdown events, lodgepole pine mortality from mountain pine beetle, and a large number of trees infested with western dwarf mistletoe. Work would begin in the summer of 2025.

A combination of prescribed pile-burning (Thin-Pile-Burn) and mechanical timber harvesting are planned to remove ladder fuels, blown-down timber and increase canopy spacing on Forest Service lands within the Wildland Urban Interface. These treatments will help mitigate the potential for high intensity wildfire and improve emergency travel to the many homes, special use permitted areas, and Forest Service sites adjacent to the Big Sandy trailhead. Conifer trees encroaching on aspen communities will also be removed to promote aspen regeneration for the benefit of wildlife.

The Big Sandy Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project has been reviewed and discussed publicly and is being conducted with support from the Sublette County Forest Collaborative. Those interested can access and review the project decision documents here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/btnf/?project=64704

For more information about the Bridger-Teton National Forest on our website at https://www.usda.gov/btnf/or by following us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BridgerTetonNFor Twitter X https://twitter.com/BridgerTetonNF 

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Pinedale, Wyo., December 19, 2024—The Bridger-Teton National Forest is currently seeking comments on the Pinedale Ranger District's East Rim Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Vegetation Management Project near the Hoback Rim northwest of Pinedale.

This project aims to reduce excessive wildfire fuels on the landscape by removing dead trees and woody debris, thinning live trees, and removing diseased trees in forested stands on up to 3,000 acres. Fuels reduction will be achieved through a variety of timber management activities and prescribed burning.

The benefits of forest thinning and burning include improving landscape resilience to climate change and other disturbances by reducing wildfire risk, decreasing fuel loading, improving forest stand health, and increasing the age class and species diversity of trees. All proposed activities are consistent with the current Forest Plan (USDA 1990, as amended).

The East Rim WUI project is located approximately 25 miles northwest of Pinedale and 10 miles east of Bondurant on the north side of U.S. Highway 189, adjacent to the Packer-Miner Creek Road.

Comments should be submitted through the public participation portal on the project webpage: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/btnf/?project=67357. Submit comments using the web form on the project webpage select “Comment on Project” under “Get Connected” on the right side of the project’s webpage. This scoping period will run for 20 days. Comments are requested by January 6, 2025. Written comments may also be submitted by mail or hand delivered to:

Kate Olsen, District Ranger
Pinedale Ranger District
29 East Fremont Lake Road, PO Box 220
Pinedale, WY 82941

The office business hours for those submitting hand-delivered comments are: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
For more information about the Bridger-Teton National Forest on our website at https://www.usda.gov/btnf/ or by following us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BridgerTetonNF or Twitter X https://twitter.com/BridgerTetonNF