PINEDALE, Wyo. — The Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) plans to conduct a tree thinning project designed to reduce hazardous wildfire fuels near the Big Sandy trailhead in the southern Wind River Range starting in summer 2025.
The project area, approximately 25 miles southeast of Boulder, Wyoming, contains high levels of dead and down fuels due to historic fire suppression, blowdown events, lodgepole pine mortality from mountain pine beetle and a large number of trees infested with western dwarf mistletoe, BTNF writes in a press release.
A combination of prescribed pile-burning (Thin-Pile-Burn) and mechanical timber harvesting are planned to remove ladder fuels and blown-down timber, in addition to increasing canopy spacing on Forest Service lands within what BTNF considers the “Wildland Urban Interface.”
“These treatments will help mitigate the potential for high intensity wildfire and improve emergency travel to the many homes, special use permitted areas and Forest Service sites adjacent to the Big Sandy trailhead,” BTNF writes.
Conifer trees encroaching on aspen communities will also be removed to promote aspen regeneration for the benefit of wildlife.
The Big Sandy Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project has been reviewed and discussed publicly and is being conducted with support from the Sublette County Forest Collaborative. Those interested can access and review the project decision documents here.
