Comment sought on Westside Restoration Project

The Idaho Panhandle National Forests and Bureau of Land Management are inviting comments on the draft Environmental Assessment for a forest management project proposed near Bonners Ferry.

The Westside Restoration Project is approximately 60,000 acres and is located within Boundary County, encompassing the Myrtle, Snow and Caribou Creek watersheds and Dodge Peak and White Mountain areas. Proposed restoration work includes timber harvest, prescribed fire, and pre-commercial thinning for fuels reduction and forest health in the wildland-urban interface.

Developed in collaboration with the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative, the proposed activities would accomplish objectives of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, such as those mentioned, but also improvements for wildlife, recreation, aquatics, and other resources.

The restoration efforts involve working with other landowners, the local community and organizations, agency partners, and the public, in an all-lands approach to forest restoration with an emphasis on these watersheds.

The project's draft Environmental Assessment is posted on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests website.

Your comments specific to the project and the analysis are valuable, please do so by January 4, 2021. Comments may be submitted electronically to: comments-northern-idpanhandle-bonners-ferry@usda.gov. Please put the name of the project in the subject line and please include your name and mailing address. To submit hardcopy comments, please mail them to: Bonners Ferry Ranger District, Attn: Jennifer Anderson, 6286 Main St., Bonners Ferry, ID 83805.

For more information about this project, contact team leader Jennifer Anderson at 208-267-6749 or to subscribe to emailed project updates, click the “Get Connected,” tab and “Subscribe to Email Updates” on the project website.