Forest-thinning project saved homes but highlights obstacles

FILE – This Aug. 28, 2017, file photo provided by Inciweb shows a wildfire near Sisters, Ore. 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. (Tom Story/Inciweb via AP)