The project will include thinning, cutting and burning mostly small-diameter Douglas fir trees in the South Meadow Creek drainage west of McAllister.
It also will include the sale and harvest of about 1 million board feet of commercial sawlogs, said Marc Petroni, district ranger in Ennis for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.
The goal of the project is to reduce the intensity of potential wildfires in the area, thereby making it easier to protect homes in nearby rural subdivisions.
Working under a federal grant, Madison County officials have helped some residents in the area remove fuels from private property. The Forest Service project is meant to "companion" the private and county efforts, Petroni said.
"It is a good thing," County Commissioner Ted Coffman said. "It's been too many years without enough done."
The county's 2003 fire plan identified South Meadow Creek as a high risk area for wildfires.
"We still might have a fire, but a lower-intensity fire would be much easier for homes with proper defensible space to survive, and it would be much safer for firefighters," Petroni said.
The work likely will begin next winter, he said.
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