The landscape of northwest Montana is among the most pristine in the United States. The vast evergreen forests that cover this mountainous region are predominantly Douglas-fir, and while beautiful, they pose an increasingly common health hazard: destructive wildfires.
Aside from the immediate risk of injury and local property damage–over one million acres of Montana’s forests have burned in recent years–wildfires significantly impact state and regional air quality. Wildfire smoke is linked to asthma, bronchitis, pulmonary disease and a wide range of other breathing issues.
In the northwestern United States, a key threat to the health of the plentiful Douglas-fir trees is an insect called a Douglas-fir or bark beetle. Though a native part of the ecosystem, the beetles hatch in often overwhelming cyclical abundance, burrowing into Douglas-fir trees and killing the tall conifers. Where trees grow closely together, beetles move more easily from one to the other, causing more damage, more quickly–perfect fuel for summer wildfires.
Eric Maisch, owner of Expert Tree Care, was hired by the Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition to protect trees on residential properties from Douglas-fir beetle infestation.
Stored in a small blister that can be easily attached to a tree, MCH mimics a pheromone produced by the beetles that deters them from landing on certain trees.
A packet of MCH is placed about ten feet up the trunk of a Douglas-fir tree to best protect the conifer from beetle infestation.
While trees on commercially timbered land are thinned regularly, those on private land are cut less often, due largely to the cost for the landowners. Eric Maisch, a local arborist and owner of Expert Tree Care, says increasing development in the area is one reason for the worsening wildfires.
“The trend has been for timber companies to sell land off to use for residential areas, so forests aren’t getting the thinning out that they used to get,” Maisch said. “So the trees have gotten pretty dense–hence the catastrophic wildfires.”
Preparedness at the community level is vital to health and safety. To address the beetle threat, the Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition, a local community group west of Kalispell, Montana, took a unique approach. With support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and the CDC Foundation, the coalition offered local residents an opportunity to have at-risk fir trees on their properties treated with a safe chemical that mimics a beetle-repelling pheromone. The chemical, called MCH, comes in a small plastic bubble that is stapled six to twelve feet up the trunk of a Douglas-fir tree early in the spring when the beetles are active. As the packet warms in the sun, the scent drifts up the trunk and surrounds the tree, communicating to the beetles that the tree is already infested so they move on.
“The beetles sense that, and it tells them not to land on that tree. So, it’s tricking the beetles, basically,” said Maisch, who was hired by the coalition to treat the trees at Thompson Lakes. “It’s real effective. I haven’t lost any trees since we’ve been doing it.”
The Thompson Chain of Lakes in northwestern Montana is heavily wooded, making the area vulnerable to wildfire. ©Christopher Boyer
Karen Wickersham, president of the Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition, applied for a CDC Foundation grant that enabled the group to protect more than 1,500 local trees from the Douglas-fir beetle.
Though small in size, the Douglas-fir beetle can be tremendously destructive to Douglas-fir trees, creating wildfire hazards. Montana's air quality in seriously impacted by seasonal wildfires.
The Thompson Lakes coalition made the service free to 50 applicants, with the goal of treating 1,500 trees on local properties in the spring of 2025. The success of the project, said Karen Wickersham, president of the Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition, will likely ensure even more interest during a second round of applications in fall 2025.
“That’s 50 people who learned about the bark beetle,” Wickersham said. “That’s fifty people who learned why a dead tree might not be great to have in your yard if a wildfire starts."
In addition to the MCH application, the coalition produced educational materials on the importance of preserving trees and native vegetation along the lake shore to prevent soil erosion, and the risks that wildfires pose.
“It goes way beyond the bark beetle project,” Wickersham said. “It helps announce us to this community as a really good neighbor doing good things.”
As Montana faces longer, hotter summers, protecting Douglas-fir trees is critical to reducing the risk of wildfires and protecting the health of local communities. Residents around the Thompson Chain of Lakes were grateful for the opportunity to participate in the bark beetle project.
“Wildfire was very much a concern. People saving Douglas-fir trees does make a forest more fire resistant,” Wickersham said. “Healthy trees resist fire more than trees that are dying, and I do think we reduced a fire hazard.”
