Forest-thinning project saved homes but highlights obstacles

This Sept. 29, 2017, photo shows the Cascade Range outside the town of Sisters, Ore., that was threatened by a wildfire this summer. A few months before the fire, the U.S. Forest Service and a group of locals representing environmental, logging and recreational interests had arranged to thin part of the overgrown forest, creating a buffer zone around Sisters. That effort saved homes, and perhaps the community of 2,500 on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range, by slowing the fire’s progress and allowing firefighters to corral it. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)