Wildfire Mitigation Efforts in Yellowstone National Park

This summer and fall, NorthWestern Energy crews from Livingston and Bozeman worked to strengthen our 50-kilovolt and 69-kilovolt transmission line that runs through Yellowstone National Park. This work provides additional resiliency to our lines and provides improved service reliability while lowering wildfire ignition potential in the park.

The crews worked July through October to replace 108 transmission structures as part of our ongoing fire mitigation plan. The line runs from Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris Junction, then splits with one side going to Old Faithful, while the other line reaches to Grant Village.

Just getting to each pole location can be a puzzle with challenging terrain and a promise to minimize the impact on the environment in America’s first national park. Adding to the uniqueness of the work are the geothermal features, wetlands and creek crossings.

“We find innovative ways to minimize the impact on the land,” said Dustin Workman, Manager of District Operations in Livingston. “For example, the crew built temporary wood bridges to gain access across creeks along specific access points to our right of way, and we drive our equipment over environmental mats to protect wetlands.”

And speaking of equipment, that has to be special, too. The company has rented a tracked bucket truck and a tracked line truck, in addition to using excavators and ATVs to reach some of the structures. Helicopters were used to drop the poles into the right of way. Engineers, estimators and supervisors doubled as flaggers on hiking trails to keep tourists from walking under the helicopters’ path when they fly overhead.

The work season in the park is short – only July through October, so NorthWestern utilized Livingston and Bozeman gas crews to prep holes for the poles.

“A lot of credit goes to the gas crews for jumping in and helping out for the betterment of the company,” Dustin said.

NorthWestern crews always put safety first, but when in Yellowstone, working safely takes on a whole new meaning. In the park not only do crews need to keep an eye on each other, they also need to watch for bears and bison, and all the other creatures who make Yellowstone their home.

Each crew member has an addition to their tool belt, special for the park – bear spray. Bears are a fairly regular sighting for crews, especially in spring and fall.

One October afternoon this year, a bear and three cubs wandered through the right of way, a few hundred yards away from where a crew was installing a new pole. Two of the bears even stropped to scratch their backs on a power pole.

“Despite all the challenges, I’m very proud of all the work they’ve accomplished,” Dustin said.

By Amie Thompson