Fire Preparedness
Forging fire-adapted landscapes
Like many forests of the Rocky Mountain west, past management and the lack of naturally
occurring wildfire have altered forests in the Swan Valley leading to dense tree canopies and thick understory.
Our role is to help landowners reduce the risk of wildfire, while maintaining many of the natural amenities their properties provide.
Swan Valley Connections' staff forester can provide professional and technical advice and assistance to landowners interested in forest stewardship. We secure cost-share funding for private landowners to conduct forest fuel reduction activities around homes and properties. Funds are currently available to support this work.
For time immemorial Indigenous people burned low-intensity fires across this landscape to manage forests for people and wildlife.
Wildfire suppression actions over the last 100+ years have created dense forests with high wildfire risk. Forests that were once open with widely spaced trees created by regular low intensity fires are now crowded with thickets of small trees no longer regulated by fires…
Mechanical thinning and selective harvest of certain tree species and size classes are another way to mimic natural wildfire processes and forest stand composition across the landscape while reducing wildfire risk.
Interested?
Fuels reduction project funding is derived in full or in part from a federal award of the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, subawarded by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Forestry Division.
Have questions? Contact
Mike Mayernik, Stewardship Coordinator
Swan Valley Connections
(406) 754-3137, mike@svconnections.org
or
Jack White, Swan Unit Service Forester
Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation
406-837-8104, jack.white@mt.gov
Resources
MTFireInfo.org
is a centralized education and resource website for Montana private forest landowners
FireAdaptedMontana.org
works with communities and fire managers across Montana to create a wildfire-resilient future.