BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Idaho Department of Transportation doesn’t want to see another summer like last, in which wildfire roared up and down Highway 75 and other highways between Bellevue and Twin Falls.

That’s why transportation department recently planted more than 330 acres within the right of way along Highway 75 south of Shoshone with short-statured perennial vegetation. Department officials hope the vegetation will be less likely to carry fire and easier to mow to decrease the fuel load.

Additionally, ITD plans to use herbicide treatments to control invasive annual plants like cheatgrass.

Last summer’s Antelope and Shoestring fires burned nearly five miles of right of way along Highway 75. And the Mammoth Fire threatened the power supply for Blaine County.

“When we have highly flammable fuels growing right up again roads, those roads are compromised as fire breaks. This project aims to change that,” said Codie Martin, the Shoshone BLM field manager who has been working with ITD on the fuels reduction project.