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SALT LAKE CITY — The Bureau of Land Management plans to perform a prescribed burn to 5 acres of both public and private land in Utah County sometime during the next couple of weeks in an effort to help prevent wildfires this summer.
The West Desert District of the organization partnered with local landowners and intends to remove piles of plant life on Reservation Ridge, in the southeast corner of Utah County, according to a press release from the BLM. The project establishes a fuel break that better protects the area from wildfires in the future.
In 2018, nearly 800 square miles of Utah land burned in wildfires, according to the press release.
“In the last 16 years, over one million acres of BLM-managed lands in Utah have been treated in fuels projects,” BLM West Desert District Manager Kevin Oliver said in the release. “The BLM is committed to managing wildfire risks by creating fire-resilient landscapes which help our firefighters be successful and safe.”
The BLM will burn piles of brush and trees taken from the fuel break, igniting them to prevent them from catching fire in an uncontrolled setting later, according to the press release. When the prescribed burn will begin is dependent on weather conditions, but when it happens, the public can expect to see smoke in the area and should avoid it during that time.
Fire crews will be monitoring to ensure that all residual fire activity is extinguished promptly, the release said.
Editor’s note: The content of this article was taken from a press release sent out by the Bureau of Land Management. This is not information gathered by a KSL.com reporter.
