Helena residents are asking questions on social media about tree removal work visible on Mount Helena, Mount Ascension, and Bommert Hill, with a post on the r/helena subreddit drawing early attention to the activity. The thread, which had garnered a handful of comments as of this week, reflects a recurring tension in Helena over how the city and land managers balance forest health treatments — including fire mitigation thinning — with the open-space character that draws people to those hillsides in the first place.
Mount Helena City Park is managed by the City of Helena Parks Department, while jurisdiction over Mount Ascension and Bommert Hill involves a mix of city, state, and private land. Tree removal or thinning on any of these ridgelines would typically require authorization from the relevant land manager, and in the case of city park land, could involve a public process depending on the scope of work.
The city has in recent years undertaken fire-wise vegetation management on slopes adjacent to neighborhoods, part of a broader effort to reduce wildland-urban interface risk in a community that sits at the foot of several heavily forested hills. Whether the work residents are observing is part of a sanctioned treatment project or something else is not yet clear. The Helena Parks Department and Lewis and Clark County Office of Emergency Management had not responded to requests for comment as of publication.