Coeur d'Alene BLM
| Contacts: | Lonnie Newton, 208-769-5017 | |||
| Suzanne Endsley, 208-769-5004 |
Pile Burning Begins on BLM Projects
COEUR D’ALENE, ID – Rain and cooler weather is providing optimal conditions for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Coeur d’Alene Field Office to begin fall pile burning activities. Through an Interagency “Service First” agreement, firefighters from both the BLM and Forest Service are working together to cleanup slash piles left over from hazardous fuels treatments across BLM lands. If left unburned, the piles are counterproductive to the fuels reduction effort as they could provide wildfires with a concentrated fuel source, thus increasing material for potential fires.
Crews are focused on higher elevation projects first, such as the BLM’s Wallace South Hill fuels reduction project. Additional burning will also include areas near Killarney Lake, Murray and Westmond. Smoke from pile burning activities may be visible to communities in the Silver Valley area as well as locations south of Sandpoint, Idaho.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. In Fiscal Year 2012, activities on public lands generated $4.6 billion in revenue, much of which was shared with the States where the activities occurred. In addition, public lands contributed more than $112 billion to the U.S. economy and helped support more than 500,000 jobs.