Mission 33 · Challis National Forest, ID

Jesse Creek fuel break

Challis National Forest

The agency files it as “Jesse Creek Transmission Line Fuel Break”

Timing

The agency stopped taking comments on September 25. What you find still counts: it backs the formal objections from people who did comment, it goes to the lawyers on the fight, and it is the story.

What to go and check

Walk the Forest Service roads under the Idaho Power line at Jesse Creek. From the road edge, shoot the strip of trees and brush just outside the cleared power line corridor: standing timber, dead and downed wood, low branches.

The decision

The Salmon-Challis National Forest is proposing to create a fuel break along an Idaho Power transmission line and Forest System Roads within the wildland-urban interface. The goal is to increase defensible space outside of the Idaho Power right-of-way. The public can submit written comments on the proposal through the agency's online form.

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

01Stand in the unit. Photograph the stand at eye level in four directions.
02Photograph the ground fuels: needles, brush, downed wood, with a pole for scale.
03Photograph whether a fire on the ground could climb: low branches and small trees making a continuous run of fuel from the forest floor up into the treetops.
04Estimate the share of standing trees that are dead in a circle around you, and write it down with the photos that show it.
05Photograph any evidence of past fire or past treatment.

What would count

Live and dead in the same frame. "Mostly green" with the photos to prove it.
The fuel on the ground and the way it connects upward, with something in the frame for scale.

All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide

Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go

Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.