Biden-Harris Administration Invests over $8 Million in Montana to Expand Work to Confront the Wildfire Crisis

Missoula, Mont., Sept. 10, 2024 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service's Northern Region announces investments of more than $8 million on two National Forests in Montana, in support of the Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program. These investments will be funded by hazardous fuels funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.

CWRRP is designed to significantly reduce wildfire risk on National Forest Service lands outside of the 21 designated Wildfire Crisis Strategy Landscapes. Lands eligible for the CWRRP funding must be within the Healthy Forest Restoration Act –Wildland-Urban Interface and within areas of very high wildfire hazard potential and/or within high-risk firesheds.

In Montana, investments will be made on the Bozeman Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Project on the Custer-Gallatin National Forest and on the West Zone Heavy Fuels Project on the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. This funding will be used to reduce wildfire risk, restore healthy forests, and protect vital watersheds that provide drinking water for the Helena and Bozeman communities.

On the Bozeman Ranger District, the project will build upon previous restoration work to treat additional areas of high wildfire risk where national forests and grasslands meet homes and communities, known as the Wildland-Urban Interface. "These efforts will continue reducing wildfire risk while creating economic benefits to our community and protecting the health of this watershed," said Corey Lewellen, Bozeman District Ranger.

The project on the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest will focus on reducing the amount of dead and down trees resulting from above-average hazardous fuels following pine beetle outbreaks that killed a significant amount of trees. "This investment will allow us to reduce hazardous fuels in our highest priority firesheds around Helena and Lincoln, while reducing risks to critically important municipal watersheds such as Tenmile, which serve the community of Helena," said Emily Platt, Forest Supervisor for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.

The CWRRP serves to advance wildfire risk reduction efforts at the intensity and scale necessary to reach a state of resiliency and maintenance of landscapes, while knitting together the work of diverse partnerships to achieve greater on-the-ground outcomes.

In January 2022, the Forest Service launched the Wildfire Crisis Strategy with the goal of safeguarding communities and the resources they depend on by increasing hazardous fuels treatments to reduce wildfire risk. This work includes the treatment of more than 1.5 million acres across the 21 Wildfire Crisis Strategy priority landscapes that is beginning to reduce wildfire risk for some 550 communities, 2,500 miles of high-voltage power lines, and 1,800 watersheds that supply drinking water to millions of Americans.