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"I wonder if the road was in disrepair due to restrictions on road building/maintenance in protected lands"

As far as I know, most fire access roads in the West are in disrepair, due to the antics of organizations like Wildfire.org Please to not take their version of the "facts" at face value. Not only are the facts wrong, because most of those burnt out areas hadn't seen a chainsaw in a couple of decades, their access roads were in disrepair. They have a link to the NIFC, I guess to make them sound legit...of course, they cite Clintonista Forestry Department statistics as "proof". Also, please note the EMAIL addy at the bottom of the page.

I'll try to paste in a letter to the editor that I sent to our local paper, doubt that they will run it here in yuppie heaven though.

Thank you to the environmental movement. The people of the US and especially the western states owe you. Your misguided, ignorant policies and tyrannical attitude about matters that you have no concept of reality toward has brought us directly to this disastrous fire season.
Before we were saddled with your deluded meddling, fires of the size that we are experiencing were relatively rare, not the expected situation. There used to be companies that built forest roads and they had dozers and equipment that could be mobilized early against the fires. They had experienced operators to run the equipment in rugged areas. Logging companies had equipment, they had crews in the woods with fire tools. They had professional timber fallers and their chain saws to mobilize in cases of forest fires. Ranchers with grazing allotments might be checking their cattle and have tools at hand. The cows graze down the grass and underbrush which create such unmanageable fire hazards. Thanks to your frivolous lawsuits and arrogant interference we now have fire hazards. Forest roads were an economic asset, that you have forced to be abandoned. They have ceased to be useable to get crews and equipment to fire scenes because of lack of maintenance and preservation, thanks.
Yes we do recognize that YOU are the reason that our logging industry is nearly dead, our economy is in shambles, and the dreams of families and their living wage jobs are destroyed. Now in case of fire it rages until the national guard must be mobilized, then they face three days of training before reaching the fire lines, all the while the fire rages on. One thing that I would like to ask is where are the fire brigades raised by the Sierra Club from their membership rolls, or by the Audubon groups? Could it be that you environmentalists can not get your satin soft hands dirty or blistered by engaging in a real effort to do a meaningful job of true environmental protection? Yes I understand that your manicured nails and lovely expensive hair do?s are what you truly care about.
We thank you for the smoke polluted air and health hazards now faced by so many people. We thank you for killing of untold numbers of wildlife, uncounted fish destroyed and birds and nesting areas lost forever. Thank you for the soil erosion that will come in the wake of these huge fires. Thank you for the trout streams and spawning beds that may never recover from your environmental orgy of destruction by fire. We now have more polluted air than would have occurred in many years of industrial production without any economic benefit to our cities, counties and states. Whole forests and ecosystems have been obliterated without economic gain to the state or local economies. The forests that have been destroyed will never create an economic benefit because your armies of lawyers will arrive to disable any attempt at salvage logging with your frivolous and nuisance lawsuits. Thank you.