Posted on 08/11/2002 8:47:29 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
Fires Spread Plant Damage, Disease, Ore-gone Eco Terrorists's View of Fire Fighting 08/10/2002
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
The Lemmingsworth Gulch Research Natural Area would be a wonderful place to make a last stand against a raging wildfire -- it's wet, boggy and flat, without many trees.
But when fire officials suggested building a fireline through the 818-acre site to help contain the massive Florence Fire, ecologist Dr. Tom Atzet balked.
The federally designated area contains at least three sensitive plant species, including the fly-eating Cobra lily, and serves as a crucial research spot.
"That research area has a particular combination of (plants) that are not repeated in any other area," said Atzet, U.S. Forest Service ecologist for the Siskiyou, Rogue and Umpqua National Forests. "If you have fireline going down the middle of it, the probability is that you might hurt it."
Fire isn't the only thing threatening fragile forests this summer.
Once the flames are out, ecologists will begin assessing damage to trees from diseases spread by well-meaning fire crews, as well as to fragile plants hurt by heavy machinery.
They also will look at what opportunities, if any, the fires have provided to combat those diseases and nurture native species.
"There's always a concern about fires and what we do in terms of spreading offsite plants, or alien plants or exotic species," said Atzet.
A top concern for crews on the 333,891-acre Florence Fire is spreading Port Orford cedar root rot, a fungus-like pathogen spread through soil and water.
The fatal disease, which can lie dormant for up to eight years, is found in about 10 percent of Port Orford cedars. Port Orford cedar grows along the coast, from northern California to southern Oregon.
Spores from the disease leech into rivers near where the infected trees grow and have been identified in four waterways key to firefighting efforts -- the Rogue, Illinois, Chetco and Smith rivers.
Water used in helicopter drops must first be pumped from these rivers into 10,000-gallon tanks, where it is mixed with 10 gallons of Ultra Clorox to kill the spores.
All firefighting vehicles must report to washing stations daily to remove dirt that could contain dormant spores of the deadly disease.
"Most of them come in with huge clumps of mud on them. We had to use picks and forks and screwdrivers just to get the bulldozers clean," said Terry Mathews, who said some vehicles take two hours to clean.
Preliminary numbers show firefighters have used 16 million gallons of treated water over the past three weeks and have a standing order for 1,000 gallons of Ultra Clorox per day, said Frank Betlejewski, Port Orford cedar program manager for the U.S. Forest Service.
"As they start getting away from the helicopter work and get into ground work with hoses, it will probably keep increasing," he said.
Another concern is sudden oak death, a disease first identified in California and Oregon in 2000. The Florence fire is about 15 miles from Brookings, a city on Oregon's southern coast, where sudden oak death has carved out a nine-square-mile nitch.
Scientists still aren't sure how the disease travels, but haven't ruled out the possibility that water drops and human traffic could spread it, said Everett Hansen, professor of forest pathology at Oregon State University.
In California, scientists have discovered spores in streams that run through stands of sick trees, though they haven't been found in Oregon rivers, he said.
Fire officials said they aren't sure how they will deal with sudden oak disease should the fire reach that area. They do say, however, that fire crews won't waste time treating water if homes or lives are directly threatened by fire.
"The marching orders are pretty clear," said Richard Nieto, branch manager for the Florence Fire. "If there's public health or safety issues, we'll take care of that first."
Ecologists also point out that fire can provide an opportunity for scientists to eradicate some diseases.
Port Orford cedar disease, for example, dies after prolonged exposure to heat in the lab and scientists hope it will do the same in wildfires.
And if flames destroy infected cedars, ecologists will replant with recently developed trees that are resistant to the root rot.
The trees, grown at a Forest Service research center near Eugene, have been available for about 15 years but because of a decline in logging there has been little opportunity to plant them in national forests, said Everett.
"The fire may create opportunities that weren't there before," he said.
Everett said ecologists will focus on planting resistant cedars along streams and roads, where spores are most likely to enter new tree populations.
Fire could also help the Cobra lily -- if fire crews can avoid punching a containment line through its restricted habitat, said Atzet, the Forest Service ecologist.
"They're somewhat dependent on frequent fire that is intense enough to run through the bogs and take care of their competition," he said. "Every disturbance has its own footprint, has its own winners and losers."
Here we have in black and white, the Green Jihadists's agenda that plants, weeds and trees are more important than humans.
This is why when many fires are fought, they don't use bulldozers (remember that scene in the Colorado fires).
They just want confinement fire fighting if any fire fighting.
Neighbors of Atzet should send him some Lilly's to show how much they appreciate his preference for a damn lilly over their lives, their family's lives and their homes.
--Boris
Some logging would have gone a long way to preventing cedar root rot. But no, instead the Green-freaks require that water used to stop the fire be treated with bleach first!!
INSANITY, INSANITY!!!
He's concerned about fires and exotic species, yet he's upset about a fireline in a swamp!
More insanity!!!
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