BOISE, Idaho — Federal officials are taking public comments on a plan to build about 400 miles of fire breaks in southwest Idaho and southeast Oregon following last year’s massive wildfire in the area.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says some of the fire breaks that follow road corridors have already been built on an emergency basis.
The agency is considering the environmental effects of creating more fuel breaks using mechanical and chemical treatments, plantings and targeted grazing.
The project is part of a $67 million rehabilitation effort following a wildfire last year that scorched 436 square miles of sagebrush steppe that supports cattle grazing and some 350 species of wildlife, including sage grouse.
Comments are being taken through May 27.
