Scattered Lands Hazardous Fuels
The Scattered Lands Hazardous Fuels project focuses on 173,942 acres of high-risk forestlands in North Idaho.
The Scattered Lands Hazardous Fuels project focuses on 173,942 acres of high-risk forestlands in North Idaho. This area was designated as one of two priority landscapes defined by the Shared Stewardship Agreement between the State of Idaho, U.S. Forest Service, and NRCS.
Within Bonner County, this project is located south of the Pend Oreille River, west of Lake Pend Oreille, and adjacent to the Washington state line. It includes a mix of federal, state, and private forestlands that have extremely high fuel loads.
There is an increasing risk for insect and disease outbreaks and catastrophic wildfires due to the growth in the wildland urban interface (WUI) and decreases in active forest management, which has reduced the ecological diversity and left forests dominated by stands of similar size, age, density, species composition and structure.
The project will mitigate wildfire threats to communities by focusing on hazardous fuels mitigation, improving overall forest health, safeguarding road access to communities, and increasing public outreach and education. This will lead to a fire resilient landscape with wildfire prepared communities.
All 15,090 acres of area to be treated are within the wildland urban interface and fire regime groups II and III. Collaboration with county, state and federal partners, national forest collaborative groups, and industrial and non-industrial private landowners has been instrumental in developing and prioritizing treatments, improving coordination with adjacent landowners, and leveraging limited resources to embrace the cross-boundary approach and achieve landscape-scale restoration goals.
Partners: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bonner County Office of Emergency Management, Idaho Department of Lands, Panhandle Forest Collaborative, Idaho Forest Group, Stimpson Lumber Company, and Clearwater Paper
- FY 2022
- FY 2022 Joint Chiefs' Landscape Restoration Project
- Total FY22 Funding Request: $284,625
