Lieutenant Tim Weaver of the Rapid City Fire Department stands next to U.S. Senator John Thune overlooking 10 acres of thinned out forest. The only trees that remain here are large pines with no low branches. Crews have removed the thick stand of trees that previously clogged this area.
“But this is essentially what we are trying to do we’ve got the trees opened up to where the fire won’t carry through that tree stand and now when the fires are coming up this neighborhood it’ll be on the ground and that’s what we want,” says Weaver.
Weaver says it doesn’t take a genius to realize Rapid City is not immune to wildfires. Senator Thune says The Wildfire Mitigation Program helps to reduce the threat of a major fire in areas where houses are mixed into the pines.
“There is a great demand here in the Black Hills we got an awful lot of people who live close to the forest and to areas that would be susceptible to fire hazards, and so the sky’s probably the limit in terms of what we could or should do here but it’s subject of course to demand power and funding and those are the things we have to try and address," says Thune.
One aspect of the Wildfire Mitigation in the Black Hills is the Veteran’s Training Program. The goal is to offer veterans temporary employment as forest workers to thin trees. The hope is this leads veterans to full time career opportunities. Thune says he believes the program is successful and will back funding efforts in Congress.