HAMILTON, Mont. – Crews have begun a 1,000-acre timber thinning project on the Bitterroot National Forest south of Hamilton. The Westside Vegetation Management Project is an effort to improve forest health and to reduce fire hazards close to private property. The project will extend from Gold Creek to Lost Horse. This week crews began harvesting trees that burned in the Roaring Lion Fire more than a year ago. The Westside timber sale was in the works before fire raced through Roaring Lion. Most of the trees planned for thinning on the west side did not burn. But fire scorched many of the trees in the Roaring Lion Fire area where crews were working Thursday. “It hadn’t been thinned in probably 100 years,” said Bitterroot National Forest timber management assistant Ryan Hughes. “So it was overpopulated and overcrowded.”