EAST HELENA — On Tuesday Aug 20, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m, the Helena Ranger District is inviting the public to be a part of the creation and design of the “Middle Man Project” for the Big Belt Mountains.
The project area encompasses about 141,800 acres within the Avalanche drainage continuing north to the Trout Creek drainages of the Big Belt Mountains.
The meeting will be held at the Tri-Lakes Fire Station No.2 with the discussion of goals to obtain forest sustainability going forward.
The Big Belt project is currently in the beginning phases and officials want to hear from community members as to how the Department of Agriculture can perform better in protecting the land and forest health from future wildfires and diseases.
The project is aiming to increase landscape resiliency, fire safety for both the public and fire fighters, and forage health conditions from beetles and other harmful entities like pollution and liter.
Management activities in this area will also help address the goals and objectives in the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, Tri-County Regional community Wildland Fire Protection Plan, Lewis and Clark Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire, and the 1986 Helena National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan.
Public Affairs Officer Kathy Bushnell spoke about the importance of hearing from the community before the project moves forward, "What kind of tools they support us using in this specific area to help us reach those goals of making the forest more resilient and reduce the threat of wild fire to the community and people,” Bushnell stated.
For more information on how to get involved with the design in the Big Belts, please visit here .
