Alder and Trail Creek Forest Fires Continue To Burn

Firefighters continue to fight the 51,000 acre Trail Creek Fire and the 34,000 Alder Creek Fire on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest south of the Bitterroot Valley. Both fires are about 30 percent contained.

At the Trail Creek forest fire, crews have continued establishing a fireline along a ridge between Anderson Creek and Smithy Creek in the Anderson Mountain area of the Big Hole. According to Monday's report, the crews conducted some burnouts from Gory Creek to Nickel Back this weekend. The fires continued into the night as fuel was burned ahead of the fire on the north side of the blaze to stop growth in that direction.

Meanwhile, at the Alder Creek forest fire, which is the combined Christensen and Alder Creek fires, crews were working on the north side of the blaze between Forest Service Road 62 and Saw Log Creek. Burnout plans have been made there, too.

The Trail Creek Fire Open House is Monday evening at 6 p.m. at the Gibbonsville Community Center and a meeting is also scheduled at the Wise River Community Center. The latest information will be available from the Northern Rockies Type 2 Incident Management Team, which is working on both fires.

Meanwhile, another closure is stopping traffic on Highway 43 from Wisdom to the west up Chief Joseph Pass. This time, the Montana Department of Transportation has closed the road from now through Thursday to replace bridges over Trail Creek. The closure will be 24 hours a day until the road re-opens Friday morning, September 17. And, a reminder that the Big Hole National Battlefield is closed until further notice and the May Creek Campground is also closed, due to the Trail Creek Fire.