Forest Service Proposes Wood Salvage Project in South Hills

BURLEY, Idaho (KLIX)-The U.S. Forest Service is considering a fuelwood salvage project in an area of the South Hills that was burned by a wildfire in 2012. The Cave Canyon Fire burned roughly 88,000 acres in the Cassia Division, mainly lodgepole pine and subalpine fire.

The proposed Cave Canyon Fuelwood project would allow the public to salvage burned timber in no more than 250 acres. According to the Forest Service, less than half-a-mile of new roads or trails will need to be built in order to reach the proposed harvest area. It would also open up about 1.4 miles of closed Forest roads, and use another 1.4 of existing roads. All temporary roads would be shutdown after the salvage project is complete and rehabilitated.

The proposal would also allow for small commercial timber sale contracts in addition to personal use fuelwood permits. The Forest Service will be taking public comment on the proposal until March 25, 2020. You can go to the project proposal web page for more details and instructions on how to make a comment to reviewed. If the project is approved by the Minidoka District ranger, harvest could begin as early as July or August of this year.