Recycling efforts reduce fire hazard

Fuel reduction is one of those eco-concepts that doesn’t receive a whole lot of publicity.

"It makes the woods healthier," said Rachel Olsgaard, director of operations for Flathead Wood Recycling, a business on five acres of commercially zoned land adjacent to the Flathead County Landfill. "It gives the trees more air and reduces fire hazards."

And reducing fire hazards is a primary goal of fuel reduction — decreasing the risk of wildfires by reducing the amount of flammable materials in potential fire areas.

One way this can be accomplished is by picking up dead trees and brush and by thinning wooded lands.

Flathead Wood Recycling will accept that material, grind it up into 4-inch wood chips and then sell it to various companies such as Plum Creek Manufacturing and Smurfit-Stone Container to use as a fuel source.

By GEORGE KINGSON
The Daily Inter Lake

Full Story: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/07/25/business/bus01.txt