KETCHUM, Idaho — Wildfires threatened Bald Mountain in 2007 and 2013. In response, a collaborative effort emerged to thin the forest on Baldy, and one of the by-products includes more skiable terrain at Sun Valley.
"The three pillars for us here in this project is forest health, hazardous fuels reduction, and the third, as a result of those two, is recreational improvements," said Nelson Mills of the Sawtooth National Forest.
WATCH: Go on a tour to see some of the work that has been done on Baldy
Crews just finished up the work this summer, and since 2020 there have been 603 acres thinned, 240 pheromone packets applied for insect infestation and 4,626 cords of firewood distributed to Idaho tribes.
"Our treatments here are designed to increase the resiliency of that forest to diseases, bark beetle, mistletoe, and we are going to reduce hazardous fuels by getting rid of dead and dying trees," said Mills. "It is about species diversification."
At the same time, the Bald Mountain Stewardship Program has planted 55,500 trees on the mountain, with many of those being Ponderosa pine and Western larch at lower elevations and Lodgepole pine at higher elevations. The goal is to have a diverse stand of trees that are healthy and resistant to some of the dangers the different species face.
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The project also means 430 new acres of skiable terrain since the beginning of this collaboration.
Skiers love when trees get thinned out because it makes the runs safer, and it is also giving people at Sun Valley new places to explore.
"We are actually skiing areas that haven’t been skied before because the forest was too thick for recreational use," said James Grant of Sun Valley. "It’s exciting; each year returning guests and locals who ski here ask where the work will happen so they get excited."
The participation from the community has been huge, and it was evident when around 50 people showed up for the tour on Aug. 28. Most of the funding for this project comes from the bi-partisan Infrastructure Act, but the Forest Service has also received donations locally because the community loves Baldy.
"It’s really and all hands effort to make sure this mountain stays healthy," said Mills. "It’s impressive to think that the local community here in the Wood River Valley put so much stake into this mountain and they want to help fund this too."
The Bald Mountain Stewardship Project has been a collaboration between public land managers like the Forest Service, BLM and the National Forest Foundation, but also Idaho, the local community and private landowners.
The wood taken off the mountain goes to the tribes in Idaho as part of the Wood for Life Program. The program helps residents on the reservations heat their homes during the winter, and it's part of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes energy assistance program.
"We served roughly 225 households last year while doing more than 400 deliveries," said Dustin Davis of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe. "We always get really positive feedback from the community and it allows us to spend money elsewhere that we would normally spend on wood."
