A nearby wildfire last summer prompted two women to give up beloved pine trees to protect their homes from a future fire.

As a result, a tree-thinning project started by Carol Swanson and Kathy Brandiger is making an entire neighborhood safer. Their story also is a template for other homeowners who live near the tinder-dry ponderosa pines of the Black Hills.

"The Box Elder Fire scared all of us," Carol Swanson said last week.

Swanson and Brandiger live on Mission Hills Loop, in a densely forested subdivision south of Johnson Siding about eight miles west of Rapid City.

The Box Elder Fire was off Nemo Road. That fire didn't destroy any homes, and it never threatened Mission Hills Loop, which is five miles south, but a fast-moving crown fire, moving from treetop to treetop, can engulf entire neighborhoods in minutes. That's what happened in July south of Hot Springs, when the Alabaugh Fire destroyed 33 homes and killed one resident.

The Mission Hills Loop is a lovely neighborhood but also a classic example of what foresters calls "the red zone," where homes and forest meet.

The U.S. Forest Service declared almost the entire area between Rapid City on the east and U.S. Highway 385 on the west a red zone. The Forest Service's multiyear, multimillion-dollar "Prairie Project" (named for a local creek) includes logging and thinning dense timber, building fire breaks and setting prescribed fires - but only on the Black Hills National Forest.

Private landowners are responsible for their own property.

John and Carol Swanson, who moved to Mission Hills five years ago, already had removed trees from their property.

Kathy and Richard Brandiger, who have lived on the loop 30 years, raising a couple kids there, had thinned a little bit each year. But Brandiger added, "We love our trees."

Both women recognized the danger.

"There are some really bad places," Brandiger admitted.

Swanson already had inquired about a state program that pays landowners half the cost of thinning trees.

"We never got to the top of the list," she said.

After the Box Elder Fire, however, Swanson got a call from Rob Lehmann, a fire specialist with the state Division of Wildland Fire Suppression, who asked whether she was still interested in the state's Fire Hazard and Fuels Reduction Program.

Swanson and Brandiger were interested, and they contacted neighbors, going door-to-door to notify them of an Aug. 7 meeting with Lehmann.

About 15 members of the Thrall Mountain Property Owners Association attended that first meeting at the new Johnson Siding fire hall. (The association includes Mission Hill Loop and nearby homes - 19 in all.)

Lehmann already knew the subdivision. "Rob told us we were undefendable," Swanson said.

The neighbors together decided to hire one logging contractor to work in the entire neighborhood.

"We realized it was going to be more cost-efficient as a group," Swanson said.

They got bids from several loggers before settling on Pascual Munoz of Pine Tree Logging, who also happens to be a neighbor.

About half the property owners participated.

The Fire Hazard and Fuels Reduction Program pays 50 percent of the cost of thinning on private property, up to $1,000 an acre. Brandiger, for example, got $2,000 to help thin her two acres.

The total cost per property in Mission Hills has ranged from a few hundred dollars to more than $4,000, which is what it cost the Brandigers to remove about 138 trees.

Last week, Pascual Munoz, his brother Raul Munoz and his nephew Mike Munoz attached thick ropes to big trees to direct their fall away from homes.

"Out in the woods, you don't have to do that," Munoz said. "You just let them fall."

The extra care makes tree removal more time consuming and expensive.

However, proceeds from the sale of commercial-size logs reduced the cost to some landowners.

"I think we were the ones who made the biggest change of all," Brandiger said. "But we were the ones who were probably in the most trouble."

The neighborhood marked a total of 400 trees for removal.

In addition, crews from three utilities - Black Hills Electrical Cooperative, Qwest and Midcontinent - spent three days turning lines off and on so tree cutters could work safely. The utilities also removed "danger trees" at no cost, Swanson said.

The neighbors have done much of the work themselves. They've cleaned up "ladder fuels" - low-lying brush or deadfall that can help fire climb to tree limbs. They even pitched in to clear the vacant lot of an absentee owner.

"We have an informal work party every weekend," Brandiger said.

Swanson and Brandiger, who are retired, have been informal project bosses, often putting in 10-hour days. "I can't tell you how much time it took," Swanson said.

And there's more to come.

Brandiger, for example, plans to move her woodpile into a metal shed, replace a wooden deck with fire-resistant materials and replace the wood-shake shingles on her roof.

Other neighbors are taking similar steps.

Swanson hopes the neighborhood's road district will construct a second exit to the subdivision. Although thinning helps, the risk of wildfire remains.

Swanson also hopes to enroll her neighborhood in the national Firewise program, which provides technical assistance to communities to make them even safer from wildfire.

The Box Elder and Alabaugh fires and recent fires in Southern California persuaded Swanson, Brandiger and many of their neighbors to take preventative measures, but not all the neighbors participated this fall. Some declined because of cost, others because of aesthetics.

Brandiger said, "We've seen the full spectrum of attitudes toward trees - from indifference ('Take them all!') - to people who spend hours standing around thinking about a single tree."

She also admitted, "I've done some crying about this."

At least one neighbor admires what Swanson and Brandiger have accomplished in just three months. Tom Troxel is a professional forester with the Black Hills Forest Resources Association, a timber industry group. The Box Elder Fire was a "reality check" for the neighborhood, he said. "Carol and Kathy saw the problem, and they've done a tremendous job organizing and coordinating."

Troxel hopes other neighbors will notice that after the thinning, Mission Hills Loop is still a beautiful, forested setting.

Brandiger and Swanson, who have become fast friends in the past three months, say the project also has helped bring neighbors together, but the ultimate goal is to save property and maybe lives.

"The bottom line for us is, we're going to be safer," Brandiger said.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com

To live safer in the forest

South Dakota's Fire Hazard and Fuels Reduction Program offers property owners 50 percent matching funds - up to $1,000 per acre - to thin forests on private land.

State "wildland-urban interface" expert Rob Lehmann said about 60 projects are under way in the Black Hills.

This year, the state received $93,000 in federal funding for the grants, but the amount varies each year.

For more information, call Lehmann in Rapid City at 394-2584. Go to www.state.sd.us/doa/wfs/ and click on "Prevention" for information online.

Communities also can enroll in the national Firewise program, which provides technical assistance to make neighborhoods safer from wildfire. The city of Lead and subdivisions in Spearfish and near Custer are Firewise Communities. Go to www.firewise.org/ for more information.