Fires burning across Oregon (Still!)

OregonLive.com ^ | 8-23-02 | Associated Press

[madfly]

Fires burning across Oregon

The Associated Press
8/23/02 10:22 AM

Major wildfires were burning on about 565,362 acres in Oregon on Friday. About 8,944 firefighters were fighting five major fires around the state.

The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking five major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials Monday were the Biscuit fire, covering 492,342 acres, the 7,400-acre Apple fire and the 62,200-acre Tiller Complex.

BISCUIT FIRE (formerly called Florence Fire; name changed on 8/11/02)

Started: Florence fire started 26 miles west of Grant Pass, 07/13/02; Sour Biscuit started 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction.

Size: 492,342 acres.

Containment: 65 percent.

Evacuations: Illinois Valley is no longer under an evacuation notice, 8/16/02. Agness, on northwest corner of the fire, is on 24-hour evacuation notice. Evacuation notice lifted for 30 homes in Oak Flat, 8/19/02.

Damage: 4 residences and 8 outbuildings.

On scene: 5,407 firefighters, including 700 Army personnel from Fort Bragg, N.C.

Cause: Lightning.

APPLE

Started: 21 miles east of Glide, 8/16/02

Size: 7,400 acres

Containment: 15 percent.

Evacuations: Three campgrounds evacuated. Umpqua Trail closed and portions of North Umpqua River closed to whitewater rafting.

Damage: None.

On Scene: 833 firefighters.

Cause: Under investigation.

TILLER COMPLEX

Started: Outside Tiller, east of Canyonville off Interstate 5, 07/12/02.

Size: 62,200 acres.

Containment: 65 percent.

Evacuations: South Umpqua Road closed at milepost 6. Fifteen residences threatened. Tribal ceremonial grounds and critical cultural resources are threatened.

Damage: No listed damage.

On scene: 1,882 firefighters

Cause: Lightning.

SIUSLAW RIVER

Started: 15 miles southwest of Veneta, 8/17/02

Size: 840 acres

Containment: 100 percent.

Evacuations: None.

Damage: None.

On Scene: 795 firefighters.

Cause: Under investigation.

LAVA

Started: 15 miles northwest of Christmas, 8/18/02

Size: 2,680 acres.

Containment: 35 percent

Evacuations: None

Damage: None

On Scene: 27 firefighters

Cause: Lightning

------

Source: The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center

Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[madfly]

Friday Fire Thread . . . ping!

[Issaquahking]

Man-made draughts, floods, fires, all tools of the greens to continue their rural cleansing of America.

[tubebender]

Pretty amazing that a half millon acres can burn and only a few homes are lost.

I haven't checked the Times-Standard yet for their report. Their web site is www.Times-Standard.com.

[headsonpikes]

I hope folks give a moment's thought to the men on the fire-line.

It's a brutally-hard, unpleasant job, even if it's a H*ll of a good way to quit smoking! There are times you can't escape the pervasive acrid smoke, and it can be extraordinarily uncomfortable.

Humping up and down steep hillsides with awkward equipment and limited rest is bone-wearying. ;^)

Pray for all the fire-fighters to return home safely. :^)

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this thread and getting it going.

Before I become Grampa Dave the baby sitter for the day, I posted another thread: (Bush's message to Oregon: His forest plan equals jobs)

This is an excellent article, following up on the great speech yesterday, when President Bush took a two by four and used it with common sense on the Insane without any common sense Watermelon Jihadists who prefer to see a forest burn up than one single board come out of it.

Thanks for helping here.

[madfly]

Good Morning, and thanks for dropping in to provide your colorful keywords, lol.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for doing this. I'm basically out of here. How do you know that those colorful keywords are mine.

Those keywords will enable the great indexers like you, back hoe and then Carry Okie to document these enviral crimes and who the players are on down the line.

Thanks for your help with this critical Oregon is Still Burning thread.

I'm getting the look from Gramma, so I'm out of here.

[madfly]

A look at the enemy!

A sample of what's probably on hundred's of greenie sites today! We need to email blitz the people they are protesting to about Bush's forest plans.

** ACTION ALERT **

OLD-GROWTH LOGGING SEASON IS
OFFICIALLY UNDERWAY

First cuts of the season mark the opening salvo for a renewed battle over the Pacific Northwest’s remaining old forests

PLEASE FAX OR CALL THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TODAY!

(Sample letter and contact information below)

The sounds of chainsaws in Oregon's Willamette National Forest herald a renewed battle over the Pacific Northwest’s remaining ancient forests. Logging has begun at the Rhody and Berry Patch timber sales located in the Middle Fork Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest. Much of the forest being logged predates the US Constitution – some are as old as 400 years.

These sales are being cut at a time when members of the public, scientists, economists – and even members of Congress such as Ron Wyden (D-OR)– are seeking solutions to end the controversy over the continued logging of older stands.

The Northwest Old-Growth Campaign is calling on the region’s Congressional delegation, as well as President George W. Bush, to demonstrate the leadership to move the Northwest beyond conflict and towards a solution. The President’s Council on Environmental Quality is a focus of a call &fax-in campaign to show that people across the nation are witnessing the destruction of Rhody and Berry Patch.

We are going to let the President know that the world is watching as he allows his administration to destroy our country’s natural heritage. The public will not stand by and allow this senseless destruction to continue! Wherever you live in the United States (or even outside of the country), please take two minutes of your time to send a fax or make a phone call.  Feel free to use personalize the sample letter provided below to help save you time.   Your action makes a BIG difference!

Contact President Bush's environmental policy advisor at:
Jim Connaughton, Chair
Council on Environmental Quality
730 Jackson Place NW
Washington, DC 20503

tel: (202) 395-5750
(if you receive message, press "0"), or try (202) 456-6224
fax: (202) 456-2710

Sample letter/ phone script:

Dear Mr. Connaughton,

I just learned that old-growth forests are still being logged in the Pacific Northwest. The Rhody and Berry Patch Timber Sale, in the Willamette National Forest, are being cut down as I write you.  Much of the forest being logged in these areas predates the US Constitution – some are as old as 400 years.  It is outrageous that sales like these proceed at a time when members of the public, scientists, economists – and even members of Congress – such as such as Ron Wyden (D-OR)- are seeking solutions to end the controversy over the continued logging of older stands.

I cannot believe that President Bush is allowing these precious and irreplaceable forests to be destoyed on his watch.  As a citizen and a voter, I think cutting down any more of these old forests is unacceptable.

The Northwest's economy has undergone an amazing transition since the logging cutbacks of the early 1990s. Federal public lands account for less than 5% of the region's wood supply and less than one-tenth of one percent of the region's employment. Meanwhile, market forces conform to the public's will to preserve all the remaining old forests as corporations such as Home Depot, Kinko's, and many other Fortune 500 companies eliminate their use of old-growth wood. Unlogged older forests are clearly more valuable to Americans as sources for clean air and water, destinations for outdoor recreation, and habitat for salmon and other imperiled wildlife.

Iam one of thousands of people across the United States that is witnessing the destruction of this beautiful ancient forest in the Pacific Northwest and join my fellow Americans in urging the President to take action to end the logging of our federal mature and old-growth forests.  I would like to know what the President is doing about this tragedy.  I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

[EBUCK]

Good morning MADFLY!! Thanks for the ping and effort here.

EBUCK

[madfly]

Anyone up for writing a sample letter praising Bush's plan, that we can email or FAX this guy and the other's I am hunting down!!! We are at war, and gaining ground.

[madfly]

We could start a SAMPLE letter thread, to bookmark, with all the contributors' letters
and a list of Names/addresses/email/fax numbers/phone#s, a hit list, if you will! :) If you post the letters here, I will start a thread. Are ya Fired Up!

[madfly]

FREEP THIS POLL

[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 8/23/02 ]

Bush proposes controversial forest management changes to mitigate wildfires

The Washington Post

YOUR TURN

Do you think thinning timber from national forests is a good way to reduce the threat of wildfires?
	Yes. Logging may need to include large trees because fire can leap from tree to tree.	39%	118
	Yes, but thinning of small trees and brush only.	21%	65
	No harvesting or thinning at all.	40%	121
Total Votes			304

This survey is not a scientific sampling and does not reflect the opinion of the general public, but only of those who choose to participate.

MEDFORD, Ore. -- President Bush stood on the burnt soil at the top of Squires Peak, surrounded by a moonscape of charred trees, and peeled a piece of blackened bark off a fir. Then he strode across a logging road to a nearby area that also has been victimized this summer by the largest fire in Oregon history.

But on this 400-acre swatch, a lumber company had thinned out the national forest last year. And just weeks after the flames receded, the forest floor already was coming back to life: Young vegetation sprouted at the base of a few trees.

Bush's tour Thursday morning through the ash and acrid air of southern Oregon's "Biscuit Fire" was designed to provide dramatic visual evidence to reinforce the White House's case for a new forest-management policy that the president proposed Thursday.

In essence, the plan calls for clearing more trees from fire-prone forest. It rests on the controversial premise that too much regulation, too many lawsuits and too little commercial thinning of national forests has produced the catastrophic fires that are raging across the American West this year. It would require Congress to rewrite a major environmental law adopted 32 years ago.

"The forest policy of our government is misguided policy. It doesn't work," Bush told a cheering crowd at a county fairgrounds just after his tour. "We need to thin.... We need to understand, if you let kindling build up, and there's a lightning strike, you're going to get yourself a big fire."

But as Bush unveiled his proposal, environmental groups said it would be a political gift to the timber industry that will undermine a consensus that Western leaders reached in May on treating forests and preventing wildfires.

That 10-year strategy, developed by Western governors with the help of a wide range of interest groups, doesn't include an overhaul of environmental laws. It makes clearing small trees and brush on the increasingly urban edge of many forests a priority. Unlike the White House proposal, it wouldn't advocate logging large trees deep in the wilderness.

"It's perplexing that Bush's first action in the name of what we came up with is to undertake something that wasn't part of it -- namely, the suspension of environmental laws," said Greg Aplet, an ecologist for the Wilderness Society.

James Lyons, who oversaw the Forest Service during the Clinton administration, said Bush's proposals to limit public appeals of logging projects would be a "draconian" step that isn't necessary to improve the health of forests. Lyons said that, while there's merit to enlisting the help of timber companies to clear dangerous forest underbrush -- and giving them access to larger, profitable trees in return -- such work must be closely monitored.

"If you invite the timber industry in to do more of this, but then take away the regulations that provide balance," he said, "it's no different than having an accounting firm act as a consultant to a company and its accountant, and we've been seeing what that has caused."

Bush, and a cadre of administration officials who flew here to begin lobbying for the White House plan, adamantly rejected such arguments. They argued that the environmental damage of clearing more land would be far less than the massive harm caused by runaway wildfires: destruction of wildlife habitats, air pollution, disease and insect infestation in dead forests, and deterioration of rivers and watersheds.

Asked atop the fire-stricken mountain whether the policy changes would lead to a substantial increase in logging on federal lands, Bush replied: "What the critics need to do is come and stand right where I stand.

"There's nothing wrong with people being able to earn a living off of effective forest management," he said. Later, in his speech, he decried the harm large fires cause local economies.

Wildfires are ravaging the West with a fury not seen in decades. So far this year, more than 6 million acres of wilderness have been scorched -- twice the average. Firefighters have contained more than 500 large blazes in recent months, but 31 others are still burning across more than a million acres.

The onslaught isn't a fluke. The West had a similarly disastrous wildfire season two summers ago. And all the players in Western land debates agree that the nation's forests are too packed with the kind of underbrush that turns small sparks -- from lightning, or campfires -- into raging blazes.

[madfly]

ping

[madfly]

bttt

[headsonpikes]

bttt

[EBUCK]

WATERMELON BA$TARDS

bump

EBUCK

[madfly]

Sorry!! Here's the link to the POLL!

Access Atlanta FOREST POLL

(Rough morning, must be all the limes I had with those cold Tecate's celebrating Bush's speech)

[editor-surveyor]

" It is outrageous that sales like these proceed at a time when members of the public, scientists, economists – and even members of Congress – such as such as Ron Wyden (D-OR)- are seeking solutions to end the controversy over the continued logging of older stands."

Nonsense! - The oldest trees are the ones to cut first before they are lost to another fire, and so that the other trees will be able to grow old too.

"I cannot believe that President Bush is allowing these precious and irreplaceable forests to be destoyed on his watch."

There are no 'irreplaceable' forests. - One of the most obvious facets of forests is that they are very replaceable.

[EBUCK]

Not related to this thread but here is a great link to the Dan and his bias... Amazing list of quotes

EBUCK