State wildlife officials plan to reduce fuels on over 350 acres of forest in the Ray Kuhns Wildlife Management Area over the next two years. 

According to an environmental assessment released by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, a combination of commercial and non-commercial thinning, prescribed burning, grass seeding and noxious weed control will be implemented throughout much of the management area’s eastern parcel beginning July 15. Officials say the treatments are necessary to combat the negative impacts of increasingly overcrowded forest conditions. 

“The purpose of the proposed project is to improve forest habitat conditions and reduce hazardous fuels on portions of the Ray Kuhns Wildlife Management Area where the long-term health of the forest stand is declining,” reads the document. 

Located a few miles northwest of Kalispell, the state agency manages the 1,560-acre Ray Kuhns Wildlife Management Area primarily to provide overwintering habitat for white-tailed deer. According to the environmental assessment, this management goal is threatened by increasing tree mortality — the result of building competition pressure between trees in dense forest stands and a rash of Douglas-fir bark beetle outbreaks. 

Overcrowded forests also increase the risk of severe wildfires. Studies suggest that the Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine stands in the Ray Kuhns Wildlife Management Area historically burned every 16-42 years, but decades of heavy-handed land management have shifted that pattern. Less than 8% of the management area has burned in the past 130 years, leaving forest stands dense with potential fire fuel. 

The proposed project will combat these issues by thinning trees across 358 acres in the wildlife management area. Trees damaged by bark beetles and with thinning crowns will be targeted for removal, as will smaller trees and brush that create ladder fuels. 

Thinning is expected to occur between July 15 and Oct. 15 this year and in 2026, and between Dec. 1, 2025 and March 15, 2026. Some closures are likely, though the environmental assessment characterized the project’s impact to recreation as “short-term and minor.”  

In total, the project is estimated to generate 700,000 board feet of sawlogs and 2,500 tons of non-sawlog material, which will be sold to mills in western Montana. 

After thinning is complete, disturbed areas will be reseeded with a native grass seed mix. Prescribed fire and noxious weed control may be implemented in some areas as late as December 2029, as officials continue to monitor the thinned areas and assess for changes in forest health. 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks completed initial scoping for the project in May 2023 and is accepting public comments on the environmental assessment until 5 p.m. on March 21. Comments may be emailed to [email protected].  

The environmental assessment will go before the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission for approval in June. 

The environmental assessment and related documents are available at fwp.mt.gov/public-notices. 

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at [email protected] or 758-4433.