On an unassuming hillside in the Lolo National Forest outside Missoula, tall piles of dead branches and hand-thinned small trees dot the forest floor on either side of a winding dirt road.
It’s late August, and Missoula District Ranger Crystal Stonesifer and members of the district’s fire management team stand outside their pickup truck and look over the mounds of woody debris, evidence of treatments being applied to the forest to slow future wildfires.
Kit O’Connor, research ecologist at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, reviews maps used in past PODs workshops at his office in Missoula. Maps like these help to inform where fire managers draw POD boundaries.
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