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FUSEE members are in the news! Past articles can be read in the archives.
June 26
Forest Service disagrees with study on thinning
San Jose Mercury News
GRANTS PASS, Ore.—The U.S. Forest Service says it has done a lot more forest thinning to protect rural homes from wildfire than a study by outside scientists indicates—though it still falls short of the goal set by Congress.
Wildland firefighting: 'Hot work, rough at times'
www.kval.com
SWEET HOME, Ore. -- More than 200 wildland firefighters file off buses and stare down a field of flames.
It's the first time most of them are facing a real wildfire.
June 25
Congressman's bill aims to expedite timber projects
Legislation would let counties declare fire-risk emergencies, bypass reviews
Capital Press
A congressman whose legislation authorized timber projects in three national forests in northeastern California has introduced another bill to push some logging projects along.
Republican Rep. Wally Herger's bill would allow counties to declare fire-risk emergencies on federal lands, thereby enabling the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies to bypass normal environmental reviews in areas where communities are surrounded by forests.
June 14
Lawmakers wrestle with how to fund firefighting
Proposals include parcel tax, flat fee
Union Tribune
Even as another scary fire season looms, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers remain deadlocked over how to maintain funding for ground and aerial defenses in an era of shrinking state income.
Some legislators are taking a closer look at a proposal to levy a flat fee on residential structures in wildland areas protected by Cal Fire, including vast parts of rural San Diego County.
The devastating wildfire season of 2000 set in motion a series of strategies that included spending federal money to thin forests around structures in what scientists call the "wildland-urban interface."
And it made sense. Those were the areas in which firefighters waged the most dangerous and pitched battles to save houses and businesses.
However, a recent study led by a University of Colorado researcher calls into question the efficacy of the strategy and the government's commitment to it. Only 11 percent of wildfire mitigation efforts over a five-year period took place in this high-risk zone, according to the study, which outlined complications of working in that area.
June 11
Feeling burned: Study cuts down the Healthy Forests Restoration Act
Missoula Independent
Remember back when Karl Rove and the clever wordsmiths of the Bush administration came out with the Clear Skies Initiative and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act? Many argued that these policies did exactly the opposite of what their titles suggested, leading to dirtier air and more logging in national forests. Now, a long eight years later, it is hardly a surprise that a new study finds Healthy Forests has indeed failed to achieve its promised results.
June 10
Debate rages on over firefighting
Trinity Journal
Fundamental disagreements over how to handle remote wildfires still smolder after last year's lightning-sparked fires in Trinity County and the North State.
Study criticizes U.S. wildfire mitigation
UPI
U.S. researchers are criticizing federal wildfire mitigation efforts, saying only 11 percent have occurred near homes or offices during the last five years.
Judge finds violation in SoCal forest planning
San Jose Mercury News
LOS ANGELES—A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act when issuing opinions on how the plans for four Southern California forests would impact wildlife.
June 9
Study faults federal wildfire effort
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- While more than 1,000 homes across the West burn each year in forest and brush fires, only a fraction of federal efforts to reduce fire danger in the region has been concentrated in the communities at greatest risk, a group of scientists found.
June 8
UM researcher says fire-mitigation work may be misplaced
Missoulan
MISSOULA - Only 11 percent of National Fire Plan wildfire-mitigation efforts in the last five years have occurred near people’s homes or offices, according to a new study by te University of Montana, the University of Colorado and Colorado State University.
The Fire This Time: Firefighting Needs Major Overhaul, Study Shows
NewWest.com
Wildfire prevention efforts should focus more on homeowners and key ecosystems—and less on fires deep in the wilderness, according to a new study by the University of Montana, University of Colorado and Colorado State University.
Fire behavior software for the iPhone
Examiner
More than 40,000,000 iPhones and iTouches have been sold and some of them are in the hands of firefighters. Fire behavior software that was originally written for computers running Windows and Personal Digital Assistants on the Palm operating system became available on June 1 for iPhones and iPod iTouches.
June 6
Private Firefighting Company Starts
Property owners will pay for protection
The Herald - Monterey County
A former volunteer firefighter is planning to fight fires again — by starting his own company.
Dan Weiss, 68, a longtime volunteer in Carmel Valley, got the idea after last year's Summit Fire near Watsonville, when he lost engineering equipment and talked to a woman whose house had burned down before firefighters could arrive.
"People are building more and more houses" in rural areas while public firefighting agencies are reducing staff, he said.
Obama pick to oversee forests withdraws
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's pick to be the new agriculture undersecretary in charge of the U.S. Forest Service has withdrawn his nomination, a White House spokesman says.
June 4
Forest managers allow wildfire to burn to thin trees
Daily Courier
Likely for the first time, Prescott National Forest officials are letting a wildfire burn outside of a wilderness area.
Relatively new federal regulations allow all national forests to manage versus suppress lightning-caused wildfires if they meet the Forest Service's objectives, explained Jaime Gamboa, fire management officer for the Prescott Forest's Bradshaw Ranger District.
June 3
My View: State fortunes will grow if forests are thinned
Sacramento Bee
If we work our diligent best to reduce the uncharacteristic fuel loads that drive catastrophic wildfires and restore resilient forests to California's landscape, we may one day have sustainable forests for generations of Californians to enjoy.
June 1
California prepares for the next burn
High Country News
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA - When Steve Quarles drives the narrow roads that wind through the steep wooded hills above Oakland and Berkeley, he doesn't get distracted by the million-dollar views of San Francisco Bay. He's too busy looking at the landscape's finer points. Take the roof of that elegant Mediterranean-style palazzo.
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FUSEE is a non-profit organization dedicated to public education on fire ecology and management issues. We believe this news service to be 'Fair Use' of the cited copyrighted material for educational purposes and will advance awareness, understanding, and public discussion of issues relating to firefighter safety, ethical land management, environmental protection, ecological restoration, and other issues in the public interest.