Create the future you want! Learn to make money online. Visit our website and start today! www.exclusivebizopps.com
Critics Say Forest Service Battles Too Many Fires
Bad Credit Credit Creditres Despite a growing body of research that recognizes the vital ecological role that fires play in the West, critics say the government is continuing its aggressive war against wilderness blazes. Fundamental questions are being raised about how much of this war is necessary, and whether the rising costs of the battle against fire in dollars, environmental damage and the lives of firefighters are worth it.
Forest Service, they are used to reforest fire ravaged land quickly and to reclaim strip mines and land fills.
The blaze quickly spread to cover a vast section of the forest. fighters battled the flames for some six hours before the situation was brought under control. There were no casualties, according to media reports. A second fire broke out in the forest at 3 a.m. on Saturday which spread rapidly from burning woods that had not been put out entirely. Emergency teams were battling the blaze until after 7 a.m.
Bad Company Credit Repair MISSOULA, Mont. As the wildfire burned furiously toward two firefighters clearing trees in the mountains near Cramer Creek, Idaho, they repeatedly called over their radio for a helicopter to get them off the rocky slope.
In the entire Department of Agriculture, "of all the areas OMB could be concerned about, they listed only two, " he reported. "Both Forest Service. So, CCC [Commodity Credit Corporation], with billions of dollars in credit hanging out in this bad economy was not a specific concern, nor was the FNS's [Food and Nutrition Service] food stamp or school lunch program which is under intense pressure in the current economy. No, the FS was the only poster child."
Bad Card Credit Credit "Oh God, we've got fire down below us," one firefighter, Jeff Allen, told the dispatcher. "Just make them hurry up."
Areas particularly hard hit were Puglia, Calabria, and Basilicata, regions in the southern tip of the country. died in Calabria. Another elderly man died in a fire on the island of Sardinia when he tried to save his sheep from the blazes that ravaged the forests there. Farther North, fires have blazed through the forest of Castelfusano in Ostia, near Rome. Firefighters made every effort to contain and extinguish the flames, but hot weather and strong winds fed the flames, making the battle particularly difficult.
Bad Car Credit Loan But the helicopters were refueling and by the time they arrived, the smoke was too thick to land, sealing the fate of Mr. Allen, 24, and Shane Heath, 22.
Bad credit loan, bad credit mortgage, bad credit rating, poor credit rating, mortgage bad credit, mortgage bad credit rating
Bad Credit Loan Mortgage In January, an investigation by the United States Forest Service concluded that the incident commander for the fire last summer had violated all 10 standard orders to ensure firefighter safety, including posting lookouts and identifying escape routes, a breakdown that led to the deaths of the two firefighters.
Auto Bad Credit Loan But the real problem, said Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, was not addressed in the investigation: the Forest Service fights too many fires.
Bad Credit Mortgage Refinance "Why did they choose to fight that fire in the first place?" he asked. "It was in the middle of a roadless area next to a wilderness area. There were no homes or communities that stood to be harmed. Fire was the best thing that could have happened to the ecology."
Bad Credit Refinance Mr. Stahl and other critics of the service say fire is as important as rain in maintaining the health of forests. They say the agency should allow many more fires to burn in unpopulated areas to clear downed timber and underbrush, thus restoring forests to their natural condition.
Bad Credit Mortgage Second Despite a growing body of research that recognizes the vital ecological role that fires play in the West, critics say the government is continuing its aggressive war against wilderness blazes. It is a campaign fought on two fronts: from above, with World War II-era bombers that dump tons of chemical fire retardant, and from below, with firefighters dropped in by plane, driven in by trucks or marched in overland.
Bad Credit Loan Student But fundamental questions are being raised about how much of this war is necessary, and whether the rising costs of the battle against fire in dollars, environmental damage and the lives of firefighters are worth it.
Bad Card Credit "For the Forest Service, fighting fires is instinctual, not rational," Mr. Stahl said.
Bad Credit Financing Only 110 out of more than 10,000 wildfires were allowed to burn naturally in national forests last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Bad Credit Home Loan Mortgage Last fall the Forest Service employees' group, whose directors are mostly current and former Forest Service workers, filed a lawsuit here seeking to require the agency to conduct its first official review of its firefighting strategy. The 12,000-member organization seeks to pressure the Forest Service to address environmental and other issues related to national forests.
Bad Credit Loan People The suit, still in its early stages, calls for a study to address the environmental effects of dropping fire retardant, which can result in the spread of noxious weeds and kill fish in streams. It would also require the agency to look at questions like whether more fires should be allowed to burn and the impact of firefighting on health and safety.
Bad Card Credit Credit People "Two years ago, my son Devin died while fighting the Thirty Mile Fire," said Ken Weaver, a member of the employees group, referring to a blaze in north-central Washington in 2002. "His death was needless. That fire threatened nothing, and certainly nothing worth the lives of the four firefighters who perished."
Bad Credit Guaranteed Loan The fire occurred in an area where the agency's rules say fires were to be allowed to burn.
Bad Credit Refinancing In its legal response to the suit, the service said it could not study the environmental effects of firefighting because it could not predict where and when wildfires would occur.
Bad Credit Equity Home Loan Jerry Williams, national director of fire and aviation for the Forest Service in Washington, D.C., said firefighter safety had always been foremost in the agency's mind. "It's a question we're struggling with now," Mr. Williams said.
Bad Credit Loan Payday While the service fought wildfires on 1.4 million acres last year, he said, 300,000 acres of wilderness were allowed to burn naturally. In addition, he said, prescribed fires, those set deliberately to burn brush and dead wood, were set on another 1.2 million acres. Critics say that figure is far too small, and Mr. Williams agrees, saying: "The real question is, Are we using enough fire? We're not, and we need to use more."
Bad Credit Repair At the same time, he said, a growing number of homes are being built on private land near national forests, which makes it difficult to enforce the agency's fire-burning policy.
Bad Credit Home Loan Uk "At critical fire-danger levels there is no telling where those fires will end up" if they are allowed to burn, he said. "We've had fires where we've made a decision to let it go, and one, two or three weeks later they're headed for a town."
2nd Bad Credit Mortgage He cited the fires that swept through Yellowstone National Park in 1988 as an example, noting that officials let them burn early on but watched them grow to threaten towns in and near the park.
Bad Credit Loan Unsecured Firefighting is a summer job for thousands of young men and women. But it is also dangerous. In 2003, 29 firefighters were killed fighting wildfires, most in vehicle or aircraft crashes, and many more were injured.
Bad Consolidation Credit Loan "I'd like to see them quit fighting fires everywhere" except near homes, Mr. Weaver said, "and return the rest of the woods to Mother Nature." The Forest Service's own research shows that clearing flammable materials near inhabited areas is the best way to protect them from wildfires.
Bad Credit Home Loan New There is also growing concern about the cost of fighting fires. The Forest Service spent $1.4 billion in 2002 battling seven million acres of wildfires; in 1996, when six million acres burned, the cost was $522 million.
Bad Business Credit Loan A major reason for that increase, Mr. Williams said, is the rise in development in remote areas, which requires more firefighters and equipment to battle blazes.
Bad Credit Lender Mortgage Critics counter by saying the rising costs have more to do with bureaucracy than sprawl.
Bad Credit Home Loan Mobile Firefighting has become the main mission of the Forest Service. Timber cutting, once its primary purpose, has declined by 80 percent in the last decade. After devastating fire seasons, the agency's budget has grown to more than $4 billion, from $2.8 billion in 1996, largely to cover firefighting costs. Firefighting has also become a big business, with more than 125 companies vying for lucrative government contracts.
Bad Cash Credit Loan Randal O'Toole, an economist with the libertarian Thoreau Institute in Bandon, Ore., who has studied the Forest Service for years, says the agency often ignores scientific studies that show how important fire is to forest ecosystems. "It's more risky to someone's career to let it burn," Mr. O'Toole said. "So they put it out, even if it's the wrong thing to do ecologically."
Bad Credit Loan Private By Jim Robbins
New York Times - 2/8/2004
Topic: Fire
Share this:
More about:
- Zip Canada Largest Online DVD Rental Service
- Forest Thinning: Firefighting -- Or Logging?
- A Living Plan For Forests
- State Might Send More Firefighters Out West If Rain Eases Danger Here
- Prescribed Burns In Fla. Forests Suspended
- Bush Orders Quicker Forest Thinning
- Politics Reasserts Itself In Debate On Managing Fire-Prone Forests
- Environmentalists Doubt Safety Of Fire Retardant
- Forest Plan Seeks To Expand Logging





