[AZ] Fires merge into wall of flame

The Arizona Republic ^ | 23 June, 2002 | Chris Fiscus, Justin Juozapavicius, Hernan Rozemberg, Mark Shaffer

[brityank]

A vehicle and structure destroyed by the "Rodeo" fire are seen outside Show Low on Saturday.

Two raging Arizona wildfires merged Saturday to create the largest fire in the nation, bursting into Heber and Overgaard and forcing the evening evacuation of Show Low, Pinetop-Lakeside and Hon Dah.

[brityank]

Hull said the tragedy highlights the need to change the state's forest management plan.

"Mother Nature is sending out a very strong message: These forests need to be cleaned out," she said. "This is absolutely not the balance of nature is supposed to be. These policies out of Washington and out of the courts have got to stop. The West is burning, and it's something we've been predicting would happen for as long as I've been governor."

[brityank]

size="+1">Ping.

[backhoe]

Whoops! Guess all those years of forest mismanagement are coming to fruition.

[brityank]

Sure are. But why haven't Hull and the other governors stood up to the behemoth Fed GodGov?

Follow the money!

[JudyB1938]

Even though your comment to "follow the money" is true, it goes much deeper than that. Sad to say, I've learned in this life to never trust the "experts". They are nothing but puffed-up jays with no intelligence or common sense at all. And I don't care which issue is the discussion - forestry in this case and such things as Child "Protective" Services in another. Just breaks my heart to see what this great nation has been reduced to. Hopefully, maybe now the pendullum can swing and restore what has been lost.

[DLfromthedesert]

Wow!!! I can agree with my RINO Governor on this one!!! Thank you, Jane, for speaking the truth!!!

[Cleburne]

Expect more fires like this one as long as fire management plans remain inadequate and underutilized. Our Western forests need more controlled burning, on a regular basis, and, in conunction with that, widespread management of high-density stands by thinning. If our government should spend money on anything, fire plans would be a good item, considering the massive expenditures spent in battling these fires, not to mention the damages inflicted byt he fires upon private property owners.

[wita]

I prefer to lay this one in the lap of moronic environmentalists who have managed (now there is an oxymoron) to tie up most if not all "forest management plans of the US Forest Service, in the courts of the land. Let's also lay some significant blame on judges who are willing to let enviro's anywhere near a court. If I was the judge...

[libertylover]

"Follow the money" is right.

The constitution, or the interpretation thereof, should not permit the feds to hold the states hostage. Nowadays, almost everything is federalized because the feds can insist the states do it their way or else no federal money will be returned. People in The Peoples Republic of New York have more say over these Arizona forests than the people of Arizona - because Arizona, and the other 49 states, are held hostage to the money. It's probably our most basic problem IMHO.

But it's hard to counter because liberals are so stupid that they'll send $100 to Washington, get back half of it (with stings attached), then claim they got $50 of free money from Washington!

[brityank]

If our government should spend money on anything, ...

Take a read on this one to get a feel of the exorbitant costs that GodGov is saddling us with.

[Angelique]

You are absolutely correct, except the underlying problem is that the Forest Service cannot do its job as a result of all the enviromentals filing all the lawsuits to protect obscure critters, and grasses, etc. Well, so much for that protection. I hope this is THE wake up call to see the real damage these folks do.

[Angelique]

See #ll

[Tijeras_Slim]

After the last eight years, don't forget that the Forest Service has it's share of Clintonista enviro-moles, hunkered down amongst the time-serving brain dead bureaucrats, and two or three good workers. (Can you tell I live in the West?)

[Grampa Dave]

Nationwide our forests have been mismanaged by the Druid enviralists posing as US Forestry and BLM members.

For two decades these Druids have worked 24/7 projecting and enforcing their enviral whacko religion/dogma that no tree, no brush nor undergrowth can be cleared out.

Those fire that killed the three young fire fighters last year in the state of Washington was a direct result of the Druid agenda pushed for close to two decades.

The terrible and frightening fires one year ago in SW Oregon, Eastern Oregon and N. Kali, one year ago were the result of this Druid Religion/agenda. One year later, the same Enviral Nazis that enabled those fires will not allow the dead trees to be harvested. This is in Oregon where the unemployment is rampant. If the trees aren't harvested in another year, they will be worthless.

The enviral Nazis and their SS troopers in the Forestry Service and BLM may be more dangerous to America than the al Fuqra and al Qaeda terrorists. The Islamic terrorists have to work hard over long time periods to harm Americans. The Druid SS troopers and their enviral masters inflict harm on rural Americans 24/7/365.

Stay safe. Socialist and the Druid Enviralist religions/dogmas can kill innocent people.

[brityank]

As this shows, the forests used to pay their own way, and even contributed to the federal treasury besides the jobs and resultant taxes they provided. Now we taxpayers are taking it in the shorts for the feel-good Bambi lovers and their misguided ilk.

[Angelique]

Nationwide our forests have been mismanaged by the Druid enviralists posing as US Forestry and BLM members.

I enjoyed, as always, your entire post. You have made an excellent point. I know about BLM being schlups, but I suppose the cancer spreads to the FS.

[John H K]

I'm not a westerner so I'm a little confused over who believes what and who is on what side regarding this.

The problem, obviously, is that these forests naturally burn, and for many years they were prevented from burning at all.

I don't recall this being a purely tree-hugger policy; and it seems the right were among the ones most upset when the New Mexico controlled burn got out of control; I've seen many attacks on controlled burns.

And I fail to see how it's possible, WITHOUT burning, to clear out dead undergrowth or whatever is advocated in the whole areas of these forests.

It seems to me the policy of 50 years of putting out every fire ASAP wasn't a tree-hugger thing, it was the general belief that all fire = bad. And are the tree-huggers trying to prevent controlled burns now? So who supports what, and who advocates what?
(As an aside, I'm a bit of a weather nut...and it's going to get infinitely worse in the long range pattern the next few weeks..no rain, and possibly record-setting heat.)

Finally, I don't think there's any magical solution where people can live back up in semi-arid forestland and not be at the risk of the whole town being burned down, WITHOUT simply cutting down the whole forest; but the whole reason they've moved there is to live IN the forest. Same problem here on the East coast and people who insist on living RIGHT on the beach (mostly second homes) that can only get insurance from the Feds, so, of course, I pay to rebuild their houses after each noreaster and hurricane.

[John W]

See post # 5 at---
http://www.freerepublic.com/fo cus/news/704600/posts

[Carry_Okie]

So, who's going to fix it? The States? Fat chance, they're just as staffed with RICOnuts as the Federal Government. The NGOs? You know what they'll do. So why are we just bitching and not talking real solutions?

[Angelique]

I, too, live in the West, and I cannot believe I missed that issue. I should have said what the FS should be.