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November 28
Protecting the Forests, and Hoping for Payback
New York Times
SISTERS, Ore. — A patch of ponderosa pines here in the Deschutes National Forest has been carefully pruned over the last few years to demonstrate the United States Forest Service’s priorities in the changing West: improving forest health and protecting against devastating wildfire while still supporting the timber economy.
November 26
Youngsters' forest fire system undergoes trials
ClickGreen.org
Sony Europe has announced that its partnership with a young team called Forest Guard has reached a vital stage in developing a forest wildfire detection system.
November 25
County Urges Feds To Allow Night Firefighting From Air
LA Weekly
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday urged the U.S. Forest Service to allow nighttime air attacks on brush fires. The board cited damage done and momentum gained in the first night of the deadly Station Fire in August, which ended up as the largest wildfire in county history.
November 21
Smokey now says: 'Only you can prevent wildfires'
DOF kicks off busy prescribed burn season
Panama City News Herald
PANAMA CITY — Smokey the Bear is one of America’s most identifiable advertising cartoons. The image — a brown bear in blue jeans with a ranger’s hat, gripping a shovel — has stayed the same since Smokey’s creation in 1944, but his message has undergone a subtle change.
November 20
USFS, LA County Fire Department in dispute over wildland strategy
firerescue1.com
LOS ANGELES — Hindsight assessments of attack strategies on the massive Station Fire have sparked controversy between the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the U.S. Forest Service.
November 19
Forest Service should change firefighting policies, report says
The federal agency should allow water-dropping helicopters to fly at night and make greater use of local agencies, the L.A. County Fire Department says in its report on the Station fire.
Los Angeles Times
Sharply questioning the U.S. Forest Service's aggressiveness, the Los Angeles County Fire Department says in a report on the deadly Station fire that the federal agency should change its policies to allow night flying by water-dropping helicopters and make greater use of local reinforcements to attack any blaze in the Angeles National Forest.
November 18
County: Night aerial firefighting needed in forest
San Jose Mercury News
LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles County Fire Department says the U.S. Forest Service needs to change policy and allow helicopters to fight fires at night, especially in forests near populous urban areas.
Forest Service says trees can slow climate change
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — National forests can be used as a carbon "sink" with vast numbers of trees absorbing carbon dioxide to help slow global warming, the Forest Service chief said Wednesday, but that goal must be balanced.
November 17
County fire recommends brush clearance, reinstituting aerial water drops at night in Station Fire executive report
Pasadena Star-News
The U.S. Forest Service should change how it attacks fires in the Angeles National Forest, implementing techniques and policies more in line with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, according to a county report on the Station Fire released Tuesday night.
November 16
LOS ANGELES COUNTY STATION FIRE PROBE: Full of Hot Air, Say Victims
MMDnewswire.com
ACTON, CA (MMD Newswire) November 16, 2009 -- "I am now asking Los Angeles County to appoint an independent investigator since this mishandling of the Station Fire may go all the way to the White House," asserted actor/animal welfare activist Leo Grillo. "President Obama has to authorize the federal air attack and he had not yet done so at the time I was on the radio screaming for an air attack. This is an obvious coverup." When the fire began to spread, Grillo and his staff moved animals residing at his threatened D.E.L.T.A. Rescue sanctuary posthaste to safer ground.
November 15
The men who jump into fire
Washington Post
Smokejumpers are legendary in the American West, and a man who was present at two of the most important moments in smokejumpers' history died last week. Earl Cooley was the second man to leap from an airplane and parachute into a burning forest in the U.S., with the task of scraping a barrier around the fire and thus containing it until a crew of firefighters could walk in and finish the job.
Meeting will review fire response in 'no man's land'
Yakima Herald-Republic
SUNNYSIDE -- Could firefighters have done more to prevent this summer's Dry Creek fire from burning down a rural landmark, power line poles and a highway bridge?
November 14
U.S. Forest Service blames steep terrain for Station fire's spread
But the inquiry into the blaze fails to address key questions about the agency's actions on Day 2.
Los Angeles Times
A U.S. Forest Service review of its response to the Station fire has concluded that the blaze raged out of control because it spread into terrain too steep for firefighters to safely confront the flames, but the inquiry failed to address key questions about the agency's actions on the critical second day of the battle.
Angora fire zone still has hazards despite clearing
Sacramento Bee
The Angora fire area has been reopened to the public, but hazards still remain, U.S. Forest Service officials warn in a news release.
November 13
Earl Cooley: 1911-2009
A Pioneering Smokejumper in a Career Marked by Tragedy
Wall Street Journal
On the afternoon of July 12, 1940, Earl Cooley jumped out of an airplane and into history by parachuting to fight an Idaho forest fire, as part of the first team of smokejumpers.
November 11
Californian firefighter warns of increase wildfires due to climate change
Thom Porter, staff chief at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) talks about the changes he has witnessed in the Californian climate and how it is increasing the risk of forest fires in a video for Greenpeace.
Daily Telegraph
During 2009 California wildfires have burned more than 336,020 acres of land since the beginning of July, destroying hundreds of buildings and causing millions of dollars worth of damage.
November 6
Firefighters lose weapon critical to halting wildfires
Specialized teams that cut wildland fire lines fall victim to budget ax.
The Orange County Register
The part-time hand crew credited with keeping last year's Freeway Complex fire from racing through Anaheim Hills and Orange Park Acres was disbanded at the end of last year's fire season, and a plan to upgrade it with a round-the-clock crew was shelved because of hard economic times, fire officials said.
November 5
We All Suffer, We All Must Pay
voiceofsandiego.com
As California endures painful budget cuts and waits for its economy to recover, the threat of wildfires continues without regard to unemployment figures or economic forecasts.
November 2
Obama signs bill to help agencies manage skyrocketing wildfire suppression costs
National Association of State Foresters
Washington, DC, November 2, 2009: President Obama this weekend signed legislation that will bring a degree of relief to the nation's forests by helping federal agencies solve several of the top problems caused by the skyrocketing costs of wildfire suppression. The measure establishes a new approach to budgeting for costly wildfires, which continually drain the budgets of the Forest Service and Department of the Interior and lead to the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from other agency forest and land management priorities.
November 1
Missed opportunities let Station fire become a disaster
By the time heli-tankers arrived in force, the blaze had leaped Angeles Crest Highway. The last best chance to prevent a catastrophe had vanished.
Los Angeles Times
On a sizzling August morning, as flames burned unchecked down the road, fire crews milled about at an Angeles Crest Highway ranger station. Others were parked along the pavement -- a critical line of defense -- their engines quiet and hoses slack.
'The Big Burn'
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In "The Big Burn," writer Timothy Egan tells two stories. One is up close and personal: a forest fire that hit the northern Rockies on Aug. 20-21, 1910, charring more than 4,600 square miles and killing 85 people in eastern Washington, Idaho and western Montana. To this day, people out there call it the Big Burn.
November/December
The Sustainability Question
The complex interactions of fire and environmental sustainability.
NFPA Journal®, November/December 2009
The Fire Protection Research Foundation’s recent 25th anniversary symposium, "Fire Protection and Safety: Preparing for the Next 25 Years," highlighted the emerging importance of the intersection of fire protection and environmental sustainability in decision-making for the built environment. At the symposium, stakeholders identified a broad range of key issues: water shortages, restrictions on chemical substances used to retard or suppress the development of fire, the shortage of naturally occurring materials with inherent fire protection features, new hazards introduced by alternative energy-based systems.
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