Kelly Pohl

Identify neighborhoods where overlapping wildfire threats and socioeconomic vulnerabilities may make people disproportionately susceptible to wildfire.

Best practices for balancing the needs for clean drinking water, recreation, and economic development in municipal watersheds.

The number of western Montana homes in areas with high wildfire hazard has doubled, outpacing development rates in areas with low wildfire hazard.

Updated: The Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire program now helps 30 communities reduce wildfire risk through improved land use planning.

County governments, fire districts and service areas, and landowners have many opportunities to reduce wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface through land use planning tools and strategies, though challenges in Montana’s regulatory framework remain.

Hispanics account for roughly one in four westerners and one in six rural westerners.

A lack of land use planning amplified the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Wildfire-prone communities should take note.

Seven case studies illustrate best practices and lessons learned to develop programs for outdoor state recreation funding.

This story map provides Taos County residents with information about the ecological role of fire, the region’s wildfire risk, forest restoration projects, and emergency preparedness.

Minority populations are growing in nearly all rural western counties, helping booming communities expand and slowing the decline in counties that otherwise would have lost people.