Missoula, Mont. — As wildfire season presses on across the western United States, forest experts say that they have several tools available to counter them ahead opf time.
Beth Dodson, a forest management professor at the University of Montana, said that fire has always been a part of Montana's ecosystem.
"Forests in this part of the world have developed with fire. Through our management, we have stopped a lot of those fires. So, one of the ways that we can try to get back to more natural, historic, stand structures is by using mechanical thinning, logging," she said.
Dodson said several factors shape how land managers handle forests, including how overgrown an area is and how close homes are to it.
That same work also happens on private property. Eric Wright, owns Missoula Defensible Space, a company focused on thinning forests around homes.
Wright, who has also worked as a wildland firefighter, said clearing that space also helps first responders.
"One problem that we run into a lot is when a fire does occur, and we arrive on scene, [is] we have a limited amount of time to prep sites. But if that space is cleared and managed, we're often able to secure it in a much more time efficient manner," Wright said.
Dodson also explained that crews do not have enough resources to thin every forest. She said that is one reason some fires are contained and then allowed to keep burning through an area.
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