Living with Fire

For thousands of years, Indigenous people in the valley deliberately and carefully started low-intensity fires to manage the landscape for both people and wildlife, to augment materials and foods. They often applied fire to the grasslands to ensure productive grazing for ungulates, and more recently for horses.

Learn more from Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes: Fire on the Land.

The Flathead landscape depends on fires to stay healthy and productive. However, fire suppression for the past 100 years, combined with recent mild winters and hotter, drier summers, has led to forests that are crowded, unhealthy, and susceptible to large and hot wildfires. Today, wildfire seasons are getting longer, fires are burning more area, and those fires are getting much harder to control.

No matter where you live in Montana, the land that you call home burned naturally and will burn again at some point. We must both learn to live with fire and take action to protect our families, homes, and communities.

Can wildfires benefit forests and people?

We now understand that some wildfires benefit Montana’s landscapes and natural communities.

In the right place at the right time, wildfire can create many environmental benefits, such as reducing grass, brush, and trees that can fuel large and severe wildfires, and improving wildlife habitat. However, in the wrong place or time, wildfires can threaten lives, homes, communities, and natural and cultural resources.

After years of fire suppression, dry mixed conifer forests have become dense and crowded with small trees, dead and downed trees, pine needles, and sticks.
These built-up fuels can move a wildfire from the ground to the crowns of the larger trees, creating a more intense and dangerous wildfire.
When dry mixed conifer forests are treated with prescribed burns, or a combination of thinning, pile burning, and prescribed burns, wildfires are often less severe.
© Erica Sloniker, The Nature Conservancy
Learn more (expanded illustrations)

What can I do as a homeowner or landowner?

In western Montana, more homes are being built in forested areas at high or moderate wildfire risk – known as the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). The most effective way to protect homes and structures is in the Home Ignition Zone, within 200 feet of a building.

By performing simple maintenance tasks, removing fuels, and choosing fire-smart materials within the Home Ignition Zone, you can greatly reduce the chance of losing your home to wildfire.

Determine Your Wildfire Risk

Check the Wildfire Risk Portal to learn more about wildfire risk in your community and how to reduce it.

Schedule a Free Visit with a DNRC forester, to assess your home and forest’s wildfire risk and learn what you can do.

Prepare Your Property

Inspect your surrounding yard for other sources of fuel.

By performing simple maintenance tasks and removing fuels within the Home Ignition Zone, you can greatly improve the chance of your home surviving a wildfire.

Source: National Fire Protection Agency; www.nfpa.org

Home Ignition Zone

Use fire-resistant roofing, siding, deck materials.
Clean & screen chimney.
Trim overhanging branches.
Clean roof & gutters of leaves, debris.
Cover vents with 1/8” metal screening.
Use flagstone or gravel around home.
Locate propane tanks at least 30 feet away.
Mow grass and water vegetation regularly.
Keep lawns and native grasses mowed.
Remove limbs 6’ to 10’ from the ground.
Grow non-woody, low herbaceous plants.
Clear plants around fences, sheds, furniture, and play structures.
Clean fallen leaves.
Keep firewood 30 ft away from structures and fuel tank.
Keep trees pruned and sparse.
Keep driveway accessible for fire trucks.
*Zone 3 may need to extend farther depending on the slope, tree species, and other site conditions. Consult a local forestry professional for property-specific guidance.

Choose fire-resistant materials.

The exterior materials and design of a home can greatly impact a home’s potential to ignite during a wildfire.

Firescape designs reduce the possibility of ignition, lower fire intensity and slow down the spread of fire.

Source: Institute for Business & Home Safety, www.ibhs.org

Make the “RIGHT” Choices:

Wildfire: Why Only Half This Home Caught Fire

See how using ignition-resistant building materials provides wildfire protection.

Actively managing forests around you to reduce fuels.

Have a forestry professional come to your property and help assess the best way to manage your forest to reduce wildfire risk and to meet your goals for your forest land. Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation offers Service Foresters free of charge to assist landowners with fuel reduction, thinning, timber sale planning, best management practices, streamside management zones, slash treatment and many other things. MT DNRC also offers home risk assessments with a focus on construction and Home Ignition Zone.

For more information, visit dnrc.mt.gov/serviceforestry to connect with the Service Forester in your community.
Join efforts in your community to create a Firesafe Flathead - Promoting Fire-Adapted Communities in the Flathead Area.
Explore fuels reduction cost-share funding through Montana West Economic Development.
Check for Financial Assistance Opportunities for landowners in Flathead County: Flathead County | Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Want to learn more?

Montana State University’s Forestry Extension Program offers forest stewardship planning workshops that teach landowners how their forest functions and helps landowners create a stewardship plan to guide their management activities. Also, check out mylandplan.org, which has easy tools to help you create a plan for managing your forested property independently.

Key Considerations for Healthy Forests

Healthy forests are home to birds and wildlife, sustaining wildlife movement and protecting pristine waters. They also support local economies and our way of life.