Updated 4:50 p.m., July 08, 2021.
A series of thunderstorms rumbled across western Montana’s Lolo National Forest Wednesday, where officials recorded over 800 lightning strikes. Firefighters are now working to suppress at least 30 new wildfires on multiple fronts.
The Lolo National Forest’s western-most portion, including the Superior and Plains-Thompson Falls Ranger Districts bore the brunt of Wednesday’s storms. Smoke from some of these fires burning near Superior and St. Regis are clearly visible from nearby Interstate 90.
Lolo National Forest Supervisor Carolyn Upton
“We have fire in proximity to some communities, but there are no immediate threats. We don’t have any evacuations right now. We are actively suppressing many fires in the area and accessing situations as they become known to us,” Upton says.
Additional wildfires confirmed in Sanders County
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Stage 1 Fire Restrictions to begin in Northwest MT
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GARRITY
Clearcuts are not illegal, but they should be. Yet politicians like U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and Gov. Greg Gianforte mislead the public by claiming the U.S. Forest Service no longer clearcuts. But obviously the Forest Service and timber industry are still clearcutting national forests.
Case in point, the Custer Gallatin National Forest just approved â then pulled â the South Plateau logging project on the border of Yellowstone National Park that called for clearcutting 5,551 acres. As if 8.6 square miles of clearcuts in grizzly bear and lynx habitat arenât bad enough, the project will also require bulldozing in 56.8 miles of new logging roads.
On his first day in office, President Biden
Under Biden’s watch, many federal agencies have quickly pivoted to embracing a data-driven approach.
COVID-19 vaccination numbers have surged. Biden rejoined the Paris climate accord in recognition of the overwhelming scientific consensus on the need to confront the climate emergency. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) vowed to disclose how the agency under President Trump
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But the U.S. Forest Service, which manages more than 190 million acres of public land, has been slower to embrace data over dogma.
Consider the case of the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota and Wyoming. Black Hills is a million-acre forested island in a sea of prairie within the Great Plains. Covered with ponderosa pine, it’s a biological mixing zone, with species common to regions from all points of the compass. It is home to deer, elk and turkey, as well as the elusive Northern goshawk, a raptor that requires dense stands of large