Thinning efforts are worthy cause

The Flathead National Forest and other organizations involved with recent fuel reduction projects should be commended for their efforts. Better late than never.

The Flathead Forest has embraced a series of projects, mostly in the areas north of Columbia Falls and between Hungry Horse and West Glacier, to thin out forests that are indisputably choked with fuel and in close proximity to homes and communities. The projects selectively and strategically target scattered forest lands that are directly adjacent to houses and private property.

Some folks undoubtedly believe the Forest Service can and should do more thinning work, on forests that aren't necessarily "right next door" to national forest lands. But the work had to start somewhere, and it has started in the right places.

The projects are so worthy, one has to wonder why the effort wasn't undertaken 20 or 30 years ago. The answer, of course, is that wildfires weren't really a major concern until the turn of this century.

That changed starting with the fire that overran the New Mexico town of Los Alamos. Then came Montana's drought-driven fires over the last few years, which captured our undivided attention.

That awesome destructive potential of wildfires came to fruition largely because of changes on the landscape. After decades of aggressive fire suppression, forests across the country were deprived of the very force that shaped and naturally managed them. What emerged over time was forests in an unnatural condition, loaded with thickets of brush and trees that eventually became ripe for unnaturally hot and large fires.

And these fires have emerged in forests where houses have proliferated and communities have grown. The need to address fire potential in the so-called "urban interface" can no longer be ignored.

And it's not being ignored in the Flathead Valley. The Forest Service is pursuing fuel reduction work in the Blacktail area and on the slopes above Flathead Lake's eastern shore. And the agency is not alone in its efforts. Local fire chiefs have teamed up with the local Resource Conservation and Development Council to formulate a plan that prioritizes neighborhoods most at risk of fire and in need of fire protection efforts. That work has led to thinning efforts. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Flathead Economic Policy Center also have programs aimed at encouraging landowners to improve the defensibility of their homes and property.

Good work is under way to curb the threat of wildfire around the Flathead Valley, and it's about time.