Thanks to Matt Koehler for linking to the Middleman EA. I briefly ran through the EA and noted the photos.. they help a lot for us folks from California, Oregon, New Mexico or even North Carolina to understand what the forests and treatments look like in Region 1. Shout-out to the Districts for the photos! I copied them via screenshots from the EA, so to compare before and after, you have to look at the figure # plus the before and after treatment description. 
Hi Sharon: In the spirit of giving credit where it is due, I got the link to the Middleman EA directly from your previous post (here: https://forestpolicypub.com/2024/07/18/horse-gulch-fire-and-middleman-project-more-montana-late-litigation/) in which KC provided it. I don’t believe I looked at this EA until today.
I’ve been reading the comments on Nadine Bailey’s recommendations of “managed wildfires”. I was going to add my comment there, saying, “it looks like we know what to do in managing wildfire!” We know what it takes to recognize our forests have changed; we’ve built up tremendous amounts of residual and operations fuels. We have Regionality in timing and intensities, managing risks to use managed fires wisely. We know it, why don’t we do it……
As a “dirt forester”, I sometimes get tangled up in the planning (being an RPD probably didn’t help 🤠) and legalities managing complex natural resource program areas. However, I really like the before and after photos of the Region 1 work! That’s something I can readily get behind to support because of the visualization that supports the actions and get my hands dirty in doing so!
But my question, who is minding the store? Are we so stovepiped in the fire organization that fire is driving policy, instead of ecology (I call it silviculture) driving our actions? In the old days, foresters performed all the treatment planning. When I came up as a presale forester, we did have true interdisciplinary planning, including a fuels planner. Imagine that, successful integrated resource management…..
I have learned so much from this group!