New mapping drops Biscuit fire below half-million-acre mark (Oregon still burning)

Oregon Live/AP ^ | 30 August 2002 | Jeff Barnard

[Grampa Dave]

New mapping drops Biscuit fire below half-million-acre mark

By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press 8/30/02 12:32 PM

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Based on closer mapping, the size of the massive Biscuit Fire dipped below the half-million-acre mark Friday as firefighters built the last bits of containment lines to securely encircle the blaze.

Burning since July 13 when lightning raked the Siskiyou National Forest, the Biscuit Fire stood at 499,780 acres, down from 500,068 acres, and remained 90 percent contained, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Miera Crawford. Full containment was projected for Wednesday.

The delay in full containment was caused by a problem area on the northwestern flank of the fire near Mislatnah Creek, a tributary of the Chetco River, where isolated winds pushed the fire over a primary bulldozer line, Crawford said.

Helicopters dropping water and firefighters digging new line stopped the spread, but work remained to secure the line.

Despite the dip in size, Biscuit remained the biggest wildfire in the nation for this year, as well as the most expensive. The firefighting bill moved up to $117.7 million.

Total personnel continued to decrease, hitting 3,100, less than half the number of people at the fire's peak. Some crews were sent off to rest or to other fires and those remaining largely worked on mop-up and rehabilitation.

The declining fire danger persuaded Siskiyou National Forest to open the Rogue River Trail to hikers, but the Bear Camp Road, the primary shuttle route for whitewater rafters on the wilderness section of the Rogue, remained closed.

Downstream from Agness, the Quosatana campground remained closed, but the boat ramp was to open Saturday.

Campfires were prohibited throughout the national forest.

Evacuation warnings remained in force for the Wilderness Retreat subdivision on the Chetco River east of Brookings and the upper Pistol River drainage.

In southeastern Oregon, the Visher Creek Fire was fully contained at 300 acres of sage brush 20 miles south of Juntura, and the Oliver Fire was 20 percent contained at 400 acres on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Two large fires on the Umpqua National Forest moved closer to containment:

-- The 68,686-acre Tiller Complex, 25 miles east of Canyonville, moved up to 85 percent contained.

-- The 11,000-acre Apple fire, 21 miles east of Glide, moved up to 70 percent contained.

[Grampa Dave]

There is just one response to your reply #18 re all the old and new fires thanks to the agendas of the Criminally Insane Watermelon Jihadists:

[Carry_Okie]

The most dangerous part of the fire season is yet to come when we start getting the dry Northeast winds in California typical in late September and October.

[AAABEST]

...the donation to the Audubon Society...

I don't know how rich the Audubon Society is (I know they're quite huge), but did you know the Nature Conservancy has over 2 billion in assets?

[Grampa Dave]

On a fire this size, 288 acres is as you note is so insignificant that a recounting is inappropriate.

They had an order from someone to revise that number down for some reason.

Also, as you noted, what a waste of our tax $'s and then a waste for the news outlets to cover it and then post it.

[Grampa Dave]

This bump is for you!

[Grampa Dave]

Besides the dry northwest/north winds in N. Kali that will be coming in Sep/Oct. We will be experiencing some of our warmest days in September as our Indian Summer kicks into gear.

The Oakland Hills fires about 10 years ago were tied into an Indian Summer week and strong and dry north winds.

[Grampa Dave]

That two billion in assets is probably understated as they don't want people to realize how much the property that they got after Rural Cleansing is really worth.

Like they will buy your Floriduh land for about a $1.98 after they force you out. Then, they will hold it for about 5-10 years when no one remembers you. Then, they will sell it to the Government for what the value would have been if not for them.

[Grampa Dave]

While Oregon is still burning and the green card carrying floristry circus klowns are recalculating the size of the Biscuit fire to make it smaller than 500,000 acres, across our country the Green Watermelons are trying to rural cleanse Floriduh.

Please go to this link to see what is happening and how Americans and Freepers are fighting rural cleansing by the Greens who hate America/Americans in Floriduh: (Link to the latest in the battle in Floriduh against Rural Cleansing and land grabs by the Green Thugs)

[Sir_Ed]

Here in Grants Pass (I just moved back, from Eagle Point, near Medford) the air is still thick with smoke, yet they're saying the fires are all contained...I don't get it!

BTW, I drove by the anti-Pope billboard the other day, didn't I read it was gonna say something about the enviro's causing the fires?

Ed

[MeekOneGOP]

Grampa Dave Bump !

[Grampa Dave]

Activists set up tree-sit in watershed

The Associated Press
8/30/02 2:45 PM


ESTACADA, Ore. (AP) -- Activists with the Cascadia Forest Alliance on Friday set up blockades on roads that lead to a 60-acre timber sale on the Mount Hood National Forest, a group spokeswoman said.

The group is trying to block the Borg timber sale in the Oak Grove watershed by conducting tree-sits, in which protesters live on platforms suspended 100 feet above ground, said Carrie Taylor, alliance spokeswoman.

Alliance members have held a tree-sit in the nearby Solo sale, also in the Oak Grove watershed, since July 4.

---

How many of these watermelons are on welfare in Oregon.

Oregon thanks to these watermelons and others has the highest unemployment rate in the country!

More people go hungry in Oregon every day as a percent of the total population than any other state.

Their motto ought to be "Love a tree and starve the children!"

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for your data.

Look at that NOAA satellite picture that I posted on this thread. It looks like you are getting some smoke from the Biscuit fire, but the main smoke is coming from the two fires north of you, the Tiller Fire and the Apple Fire.

Re the billboard that you mentioned. Coming soon:

[Grampa Dave]

Here is what your friendly tree huggers and root suckers are up to in Montana: ( A U.S. Forest Service official told loggers Wednesday that some out-of-state environmental activists operating in Montana are terrorists trained in arson, vandalism and bomb-making. )

[blackie]

Hang'em High !!

Stop the attacks on our Freedoms by the wacko, extreme left-wing, lunatic fringe, dirt worshipping Green Jihadist, enviro-nazis terrorist's and their toadies in the media !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

Molon Labe !!

FMCDH !!

F.I.R.E. !!

[blackie]

Congratulations Dave, for being chosen as one of FR's Finest; you are !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

FIRE!

[sasquatch]

Just imagine how much smaller it'll be if we get hammered with rainfall this winter!
The whole mess may just ooz into the big pond on the left.

[Granof8]

Bush administration takes up review of landmark environmental law


By Matthew Daly, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is reviewing a landmark environmental law both reviled and praised because it requires lengthy studies before foresters cut a tree or developers start to dig.

White House officials say they want to modernize the 32-year-old law they blame for bureaucratic gridlock, but environmentalists fear it's a move to roll back crucial protections.

"Given this administration's past record on the environment, it's hard to imagine they are up to any good," said Maria Weidner of Earthjustice, an environmental law firm and advocacy group.

At issue is the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Signed by President Nixon in 1970, the law requires developers, loggers and others to describe in detail the impact a proposed project will have on the environment and come up with measures to minimize them.

A typical environmental impact statement includes detailed analysis by several federal agencies and extensive public comment.

Environmentalists consider it a fundamental law and rely on it to limit development on public land and block projects that threaten endangered species, including the spotted owl and steelhead trout.

But critics say the law has burgeoned into a swamp of regulations and logistical hoops that stall business projects for years at a time.

"The simple fact is, (NEPA) has been used and abused by those who want to obstruct activities" such as logging in national forests, said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group.

"As more and more agencies can weigh in and make stipulations and requirements, the process in many cases has become much more costly and has proved to be an obstacle to development," said Darren McKinney, spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers.

The review was launched last month by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which says the law needs to be updated after three decades of being essentially unchanged. A nine-member task force is accepting public comment through Sept. 23 and expects to issue a report by early next year.

"We're not out to gut" the law, task force director Horst Greczmiel said. "We're out there to try to make it better. In common parlance, we want to cut the fat if there's fat out there and we want to beef up the beef."

Environmentalists are not convinced. They point to the president's Aug. 22 proposal to step up logging in national forests to prevent wildfires as an example of the kind of changes the administration wants to pursue under a watered-down NEPA. A key element of the plan would make it more difficult for environmentalists to appeal federal decisions that allow logging.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., pushed a similar measure in July to exempt some logging in his home state from the law to prevent wildfires. Republicans are seizing on Daschle's maneuver to underscore the need for change. (snip)


But some Western lawmakers call the review long overdue.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said he hopes the task force "will bring some sanity and common sense back to the process." Environmental review has "come to represent nothing but gridlock in the West," he added. (snip)

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

We'll see what they say tomorrow. The fire jumped lines overnight & today & spread. If they still say we're under half a million its BS. Of course they can say based on "better imagery"

[Grampa Dave]

Actually the ooze and mud slides that will come this fall/winter will make the impact area even bigger. Most of the Wilderness area that burnt is higher than the containment lines. The west side of that coastal ridge gets 90 to 120 inches of rain during the rainy season. There will be massive flooding and mud slides on the West Slide. I don't know that much about the East Side but they could have a problem also this winter.

Carry and I have been warning about what happens in the winter after all of these fires and then in the wet spring.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks to my conservative buddy in Eugene!