BLM offers 1.1 million board-feet timber sale near Dolores

The Bureau of Land Management on Jan. 15 announced the West Fork Ridgeline Timber Sale, a sealed-bid offering of roughly 1.1 million board-feet of primarily thinned Douglas-fir across about 808 acres. The agency said the sale is intended to reduce wildfire threat, improve forest health, and support timber production under Good Neighbor Authority arrangements.

The sale area lies within the BLM Southwest District and overlaps field offices that serve Tres Rios and the Dolores area, placing local contractors and downstream communities directly in the project footprint. The BLM release includes maps and a prospectus as attachments and names a Gunnison Field Office address for bid submittal. Sealed bids must be received prior to 10:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time on Jan. 29, 2026; the notice emphasizes that late bids will not be accepted. The release also provides phone and email contact information for the BLM Colorado office and explains how to obtain the prospectus and maps.

For local loggers, haul operators, and small contractors in Dolores County this represents a near-term procurement opportunity. The sale is framed as primarily thinning work, a treatment aimed at lowering surface and ladder fuels while restoring stand structure. That work can generate short-term contracting and employment activity, while also influencing longer-term forest composition and access along ridgelines and watershed slopes that feed local creeks and rivers.

Beyond immediate contractor interest, the sale has implications for wildfire resilience and water security. Thinning projects in the Southwest District are one of the tools agencies use to reduce high-severity fire behavior and to protect municipal and downstream water supplies. Any changes in forest cover, road use, or seasonality of operations can affect sediment delivery and recreational access; community members who rely on healthy forested watersheds should monitor maps and the prospectus for specific unit locations and seasonal restrictions.

The Good Neighbor Authority framing signals continued collaboration between federal and state partners on forest treatments, which can speed project delivery but also shifts how projects are planned and funded. Local government officials and landowners with riparian or watershed concerns may want to review the prospectus and reach out to the BLM contacts listed in the release for technical details and timing.

Residents and contractors should review the BLM’s prospectus and maps, note the Jan. 29 bid deadline, and use the contact information provided in the announcement for questions. The outcome of the sale will determine which firms work in the West Fork ridgeline, when active thinning begins, and how this riparian landscape is managed for fire and watershed protection in the coming seasons.