Marshall Canyon is a small drainage that can be out-of-sight, out-of-mind for most Missoulians. But for the past year or so, itโs been a-buzz with chainsaws and machinery as the U.S. Forest Service, the state and Missoula city and county have worked to log, thin and burn the canyonโs wildland-urban interface. Thursdayโs late afternoon sun helped the yellows of the larch and cottonwood trees pop out from the greens of the surrounding pines and also highlighted a yellow bus as it climbed the logging road along the west slope of Marshall Canyon.
Inside the bus, around three dozen people listened to a handful of speakers who were part of the Missoula Chamber of Commerce’s Forest Resources Committee tour of the forestry work being carried out in Marshall Canyon. The bus rolled through stands that have recently been thinned as part of the Forest Serviceโs Marshall Woods Project before stopping at a high point directly across from the Marshall Mountain Park, which Missoula County has owned since 2024.
