BLM planning controlled burns

Prescribed burns are planned in Rich and Tooele counties this week, the Bureau of Land Management announced Monday.

The BLM's West Desert District has been planning the burns for months, and weather conditions look favorable this week.

In Rich County, officials plan to burn about 1,250 acres a few miles northwest of Woodruff. The fire should help break up the sagebrush canopy, reducing the risk for wildfires, officials said.

Officials are also planning a wood-chip burn in the Skull and Rush valleys. Three areas, totaling 436 acres, will be burned between now and the fall. The burn's objective is to "determine the fire behavior and fire effects of burning by-product wood chips of varying age classes and in various seasons."