Governor brings relief to victims of Rodeo-Chediski fire

TucsonCitizen.com ^ | Feb. 7, 2003 | AP

[madfly]

SHOW LOW - Gov. Janet Napolitano delivered money and words of support Friday to eastern Arizona residents still trying to recover from the largest wildfire in state history.

Napolitano handed over a $413,000 grant to help pay for planting Ponderosa pines and other plants on private lands burned by the Rodeo-Chediski fire in June and July. The fire charred 469,000 acres and destroyed some 450 homes in the areas around Show Low and Heber-Overgaard.

[madfly]

Logging has been halted in the area of these fires.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

But of course, we've got to get that fire burning good and strong. That can't happen if those pesky loggers are depleting the fuel to burn out the trees and furry animals that those lunkhead greenies love so much. Don't you love their "logic"?

It's like they want the trees and animals to burn so that they can turn around and blame it on man to further their enviro-socialist agenda. This may or may not be the case. I'm trying to figure out how they "think", which is probably a futile exercise.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

BTTT!

[Carry_Okie]

Four hundred grand to replant 500.000 acres? I'm skeptical that even the Apache work that cheap. Not only that, but it's been so dry this winter the seedlings might not make it.

What say you forester?

[CedarDave]

"What you're facing is a radical group out of Santa Fe. They don't care," Napolitano said of the lawsuit plaintiffs. "What we need to do is keep moving forward."

She should know. She was probably a member of that group (Forest Guardians) or the Sierra Club when she lived in NM. Anyone know her background memberships in environmental groups? (She probably listed her memberships to help her get elected, like Jim Baca the former Mayor of Albuquerque was Wilderness Society director before Clinton appointed him head (or deputy) of the BLM.)

Bumping and adding NM to topics.

[HiJinx]

Does anyone really think Napolitano is doing more than giving lip service to the residents of Show Low?

[forester]

The short answer is that $413,000 will reforest less 1% of the area burned. Here is the long answer:

*Assume that the area is replanted to 300 trees per acre (12' x 12' spacing). This is the minumum stocking standards in California by the way.
* From the article above: $9,000 ÷ 25,000 trees = 36¢/tree
* Assume in the ground cost of 77¢/tree (36¢ for the seedling and 41¢ to plant it)
* 300 trees/acre x 77¢/tree = $231 per acre in reforestation costs alone.
* $413,000 ÷ $231/acre = 1,787 acres - that is how much the Governor's check will replant.
* 469,000 acres x $231/acre = $108,339,000.00

The article says this is for private ground only, so it is not supposed to replant the whole thing because alot of the land burned was on the Apache Reservation; and to be realistic, alot of that ground was pinion and juniper woodland. So even if one only replants half of the area burned, the total cost is over $50 million dollars, because the project would involve planting over 70 million trees.

[bybybill]

BYBYBILL`s RULE; The further from the wilderness they live, the wackier the radical green wackos get.

[Carry_Okie]

Thanks, I hadn't a clue.
$250/ acre for purposes of memory.
While you're here, how much for aereal grass seeding?
Don't "cheat" on the numbers now! ;-)

...

That was "cheat grass" for those who didn't know. :-))

[forester]

While you're here, how much for aereal grass seeding?

I guess that would depend on weather one could find an individual willing to sit on the wing with a bag of seed, pitching handfulls out in an orderly fashion ;o)

Seriously, aeriel seeding was utilized in the 1960's with sporadic success. Main problem was uneven application...some areas got no seed, other areas came back like dog-hair. As far as cost, I don't know anyone who does it. The closest thing would be helicopter application of granular herbicide I'm guessing $170 - $210 per acre.

[madfly]

Here is something from Dec. re: her environment team. Some green and smelly folks, Nature Conservancy woman didn't need approval.

Democratic governor-elect Janet Napolitano has tapped a real estate executive, a state senator, an environmentalist and a former aide to Al Gore to make up her national resources team.

Napolitano is nominating commercial real estate executive Mark Winkelman to head the Arizona Land Department, which oversees state-owned property and open spaces. Winkelman was active in Napolitano's campaign and is founder and managing partner of MGS Partners LLC.

The governor-elect has picked Lori Faeth as her environmental policy advisor. Faeth currently serves as the Arizona lobbyist for the Nature Conservancy — one of the top environmental and conservation advocacy groups.

Steve Owens will be the new director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Owens is an environmental lawyer who served as an aide to Al Gore when he represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate.

Democratic State Sen. Herb Guenther will lead the state Department of Water Resources. Guenther was re-elected in November, which creates a legislative vacancy that must be filled by a Democrat. (I forget who replaced him)

[Carry_Okie]

So $500 an acre for the barest minimum of restoration cost. Then there's weed control. Together, that (of course) WILDLY exceeds the capital value of a lot of that land.

One wonders why the Federill Grubbamint hangs onto all that dirt.

[Carry_Okie]

Here is an interesting report from the National Association of Forest Service Retirees that is available online: Forest Health and Fire.

Mighty telling, isn't it, that a federal bureaucracy has an association dedicated to saying what they couldn't say when they were employed?

[forester]

Regarding my response to the grass seeding question, my mistake. My example was based on conifer seeding, not grass seeding. The end result probably boils down to equipment time anyway, so the numbers are still in the ball park. Yes, the gov't spends more on the land then the land is worth, in effect, subsidizing the delusions of the greens. Did you catch the article on the Sierra's in which the regional forester stated that the USFS was spending up to $1,000/acre on fuel reduction? Totally unsustainable don't ya think?

Yep, the USFS gave golden handshakes to their most experienced and capable personnel; and although those folks are glad they left, it breaks their hearts to see what is happening to the land that they spent their entire careers taking care of...sigh.

[Carry_Okie]

OK, that makes more sense. I coudln't envision how areal grass seeding wouldn't work.