A four-year research and education project is being conducted to evaluate future wildfire risk in Flathead County, Montana, which part of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.

The title of the project is Assessing and Adaptively Managing Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface for Future Climate and Land Use Changes is.

Goals of the project are to: (1) enhance the capacity of the community of interest (i.e., land and wildland fire management agencies, homeowners, and community/regional planners) in Flathead County and other areas to evaluate and manage wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) in light of future climate change and future residential development in wildland areas; and (2) improve knowledge and understanding about the nature, benefits, and risks of wildfire in the WUI on the part of the broader community (i.e., middle school students, participants of environmental education courses, and others).

The project is a collaborative effort of scientists and staff from the University of Missouri, the University of Montana, St. Louis Community College (Missouri), the USDA Forest Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Project collaborators include the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Flathead County Office of Emergency Services, Flathead County Planning and Zoning, Flathead National Forest, Glacier National Park, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and the Glacier Institute.

The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Go to http://projects.cares.missouri.edu/fireclim-montana/ for more information about the project.