Lolo Forest looks to recover some of the economic value of timber that burned

By Perry Backus
The Missoulian
November 6, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

After nearly 10 percent of the 2-million-acre Lolo National Forest was hit by this summer’s wildfires, officials are working to decide how much burned timber can be salvaged before its economic value is lost. While Montana lumber mills say the salvage sales could provide much needed logs for their operations, environmental groups are leery about the amount of timber that will be harvested and impacts to the forest that could occur. “Based on our Forest Plan allocations and past experience with fire salvage, we can expect around 10 to 15 percent of the areas that burned to be identified for salvage,” said Lolo National Forest Supervisor Timothy Garcia. So far, the Lolo Forest has announced plans to do salvage logging on 2,718 acres on the Sunrise Fire that burned a little over 26,000 acres near Superior.

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