STORY (AP) - Work on a project to reduce wildfire danger around this northern Wyoming community is halfway done and should be completed by spring, the state Division of Forestry said.

Crews have removed dead and downed trees, brush and other materials from 34 acres of the two-mile-long fire break, and were expected to start chopping up the trees and branches this week.

The chips will then be spread on the ground, project coordinator John Lunbeck said.

"To date approximately $24,000 has been expended on the fuel reduction effort," said Bill Haagenson of the Wyoming Division of Forestry office in Buffalo. "We hope to finish the project by the spring of 2004."

The project, which includes private, state and federal lands, is expected to cost more than $400,000 in public money. The fire break is a 300-foot-wide strip between Story and the adjacent Big Horn Mountains.

Other work is planned this winter on the 60-acre Thorne-Rider Youth Camp and 83-acre Story Fish Hatchery.

Reducing the amount of timber will decrease the chances of a fire moving from crown to crown, officials said. Also, fewer trees will compete for the same amount of moisture and nutrients, leaving them healthier.