A sweeping plan to use prescribed fire on hundreds of thousands of acres of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest has been halted well before any drip torches were dusted off.
The national forest in southeastern Idaho had proposed using controlled fire to regenerate up to 1.7 million acres of the landscape, one thatâs largely lacked natural wildfire, leading to thick understories, a dearth of aspen and decadent conifer stands.
But the Caribou-Targhee also sought to authorize that project using a âcategorical exclusionâ within the National Environmental Policy Act, which meant that analysis would have been minimal. Environmental advocacy groups and residents wrote in with concerns about the ambitious plans, and some of the issues they identified led to the projectâs demise.