Bozeman, Mont., March. 31, 2015—The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices in Helena and Whitehall are currently accepting applications from private landowners for forestry improvement projects in the Tenmile Creek Watershed and South Hills in Lewis and Clark County and the Lump Gulch area near Clancy in Jefferson County. Although NRCS accepts program applications year-round, landowners need to apply by May 1, 2015, to be considered for funding in 2015.
The project is part of the Two Chiefs’ Joint Landscape Restoration Partnership, a partnership between NRCS and the U.S. Forest Service to plan and implement cooperative forest improvement projects on public and private land to reduce wildfire threats and protect water quality and supply.
The Tenmile watershed provides the majority of the domestic water supply to Helena and the South Hills are home to many of Helena’s residents and Helena’s Open Lands recreational trail system. Impacts from mountain pine beetle, spruce budworm, and decades of fire suppression have resulted in uncharacteristic fuel loading in the Tenmile watershed and Helena’s South Hills and the Lump Gulch area. According to Jon George, NRCS district conservationist in Helena, heavy fuel loading of dead and diseased trees has increased the potential for a large landscape-scale fire that could lead to negative post-wildfire impacts to soil, water, vegetation, as well as, property damage.
NRCS is offering technical and financial assistance to private landowners in this project area which includes Grizzly Gulch, Orofino Gulch, Tucker Gulch, Colorado Gulch, and Unionville and Rimini in Lewis and Clark counties and Lump Gulch, Martinez Gulch, and Travis Creek in Jefferson County. This assistance is targeted toward helping landowners thin forests on their property to create fuel breaks and increase the resistance of remaining trees to future pressures from insects, disease, and fire.
Landowners who are interested in participating in this assistance program can call the NRCS Field Office in Helena at (406) 449-5000 ext. 3, 790 Colleen Street, or the NRCS Field Office in Whitehall at (406) 287-3215 ext. 301, 3 Whitetail Road.
