BLACKFOOT VALLEY — A large column of smoke that was seen south of Clearwater Junction and Ovando areas on Thursday afternoon was due to a prescribed fire by the Bureau of Land Management.
The prescribed fire is in the Wales Creek Drainage.
On the Blackfoot Challenge's Facebook page, the group says over the last five years, the Bureau of Land Management, Blackfoot Challenge, and an adjacent private ranch have been preparing for this burn.
In the Facebook post it said: "By creating a forest fuels break on nearby private land to help control the extent of area able to burn, the BLM could use fire as a management tool in this area."
BLM is planning more controlled burns for this fall in the same area, as well as downriver along the Blackfoot River Recreation Corridor.
