Buck Fire closure reduced; Snow Peak trail reopened

TRAILS — Trail 55 to Snow Peak in the St. Joe Ranger District has been reopened today as the Idaho Panhandle National Forests reduce the closure area for the Buck Fire.

Portions of Forest Service Roads 201 and Trail 100 (from its intersection with Trail 627) and all of Trail 627 are still closed. The smaller area closure remains in the vicinity of Snow Peak (see map) where fire activity continues.

Surveyors Lookout and Northbound Creek Trail 111 into the Mallard-Larkins Pioneer Area remain open.

Access to Surveyors Lookout and Sawtooth Saddle remain open via Beaver Creek (Road 303) and the remaining open portion of Road 201 south of the Beaver Creek junction.

Info: St. Joe Ranger District, Avery Office (208) 245-6200, or St. Maries Office (208) 245-2531.

Fire danger is considered “extreme” throughout the Idaho Panhandle. even new fires were detected this week in the Coeur d’Alene Dispatch Area  and five of them were caused by humans, according to Forest Service officials.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forests has two active fires.

• The North Fork Hughes Fire (1,582 acres) is located in the Upper Hughes Fork drainage in the Salmo Priest Wilderness on the Priest Lake Ranger District.
• The Buck Fire (146 acres) is located 17 miles southeast of Avery on the St. Joe Ranger District, and is 60% contained.  Both fires are burning in steep terrain and heavy fuels.

Information on these fires is updated on Inciweb, under their respective names, at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/ .

Stage 2 fire restrictions are still in effect on all state, federal, and private forestland and rangeland in Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai, Shoshone, and Latah Counties.  This also includes public lands in Washington and Montana that are administered by the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.