Health of Little Belt Mountains focus of public meetings

The old forests in the Little Belt Mountain range are facing threats and Lewis and Clark National Forest wants to improve the landscape with help from the public.

The forest brought in specialists to assist in conducting a landscape-scale assessment of the popular mountain range over the past year.

The study looked at the current vegetation compared to what was there historically prior to European settlement, forest spokesman Dave Cunningham said.

Not surprisingly, much of the forest is in an older stage, more than what it would be naturally, Cunningham said. That has made it more susceptible to stand-replacing fires and pine beetle epidemics, he said.