Billings FO completes Castle Butte Fuels Reduction Treatment

Story by Taig O’Donnell, Forestry Technician; and Jennifer Macy, Archaeologist

The Billings Field Office recently completed a fuels reduction project at the Castle Butte Area of Environmental Concern (ACEC), located about 15 miles of Pompeys Pillar.

The intent of the project was twofold: 1) improve safety and accessibility of the ACEC by removing dead and down timber from trails; and 2) remove branches touching prehistoric petroglyphs to reduce vegetative-created erosion.

Brush and ground litter were removed from the trail locations and the cut material was either hand piled or scattered depending on the volume of slash. Any standing dead ponderosa or juniper was evaluated for hazard, habitat and potential to impact the trail area.

Paul Morey, Billings FO wildlife biologist, helped identify shrub and snags used as habitat, and these were left undisturbed. Some fuels reduction was implemented to reduce fire impact on cavity nesting trees on this site.

A number of other cultural areas were evaluated but did not warrant any fuels work, or very little work at this time. Areas where minimal fuels reduction was done are not indicated on the map. Some light grass and shrub were left in place to help reduce soil erosion in areas that would have limited fire impact on cultural sites.