http://www.evergreenaviation.com/supertanker/index.html
Date: 6/29/12
Evergreen International Aviation Statement Concerning the Supertanker
We felt compelled to release this statement due to the overwhelming amount of calls we have received concerning the availability of the Evergreen Supertanker. We at Evergreen are saddened by the fire devastation now taking place in many Western US states. For over 60 years, we have supported the US Forest Service in its important mission to battle and control fires, and it is our desire to continue this rich history of service. While our helicopters continue to work fires for the State of Alaska under State contracts, unfortunately, our Boeing 747 Supertanker Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) aircraft awaits activation with the US Forest Service.
We have never been told why we have not been activated by the US Forest Service, so we can only speculate as to why we face this outcome:
Intentional loss of forage and shelter.
The tankers don’t put out fires. They tempoirarily reduce the severity so firefighters can get close enough to build fire lines.
It is a huge mistake to pour money into tankers and think that will solve the problem.
The local Forest budget has to be pumped up to reduce fuels so that these confulgrations don’t happen. We are at 1,000 trees per acre when historic density is more like 10 trees per acre. Muir galloped his horse through the forest in his day. Panoramic photos from fire lookouts in the 1920s are startlingly sparse on vegetation compared to today. It is a tangled mass of ladder fuels and dead trees now.
IF thinning, including the necessary cutting down of some large trees, and timely salvage can take place without being embroiled in appeals and court, the profit could help to substantially offset costs.
If the EPA got off its ridiculous boiler MACT standard that no one could ever meet, then cogeneration, pellet and smallwood facilities could be built or reopened to take in the small fuels and actually make energy or value added products from them.