Playing with fire: Environmental rules fuel massive inferno

Wednesday, October 9, 2002

Quote of the Day by gaelwolf

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EBUCK

Are you just trying to make me angry? ;o)

Why can't we dust drop surplus enviro-nazi on fires (all enviro-nazi are surplus!)

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 !!

Fighting Irresponsible Radical Environmentalism !!

Thanks John!

Here is the Burn Baby Burn Baby strategy right from the pink panty wearing Floristry Circus Klowns who were in charge of fires that happened in the former Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area:

These Druid Floristry Circus Klowns love Good Fires. A Good fire is categorized as a natural cause fire like one caused by lightening.

This mega disaster was totally predictable. First the enviral nazis close all roads into the Wilderness Area. Then they block any removal of dead trees and brush. After a decade or so this creates fuel for a massive fire bomb.

This is what happened this summer in what was the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits

Kalmiopsis Wilderness

"A area of wilderness....which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable..." (Wilderness Act, 1964)

What is a Prescribed Natural Fire?
This term no longer represents a type of fire and has no further use other than in historical descriptions. This term is replaced by Wildland Fire Use.

What is Wildland Fire Use?
The management of naturally ignited (usually lightning) Wildland Fires to accomplish specific prestated resource management objectives in predefined geographic areas outlined in Fire Management Plans. Wildland Fire Use is not to be confused with Fire Use, which is a broader term encompassing more than just Wildland Fires.

Wildland Fire Any nonstructure fire, other than Prescribed Fire, that occurs in the wildland. This term encompasses fires previously called both wildfires and prescribed natural fires.

Fire Use The combination of wildland fire use and prescribed fire application to meet resource objectives.
Wildfire An unwanted wildland fire (this is not a seperate type of fire)

Fire Management Plan A strategic plan that defines a program to manage wildland and and prescribed fires and documents the Fire Management Program in the approved land use plan. The plan is supplemented by operational plans such as preparedness plans, preplanned dispatch plans, prescribed fire plans, and prevention plans.
Prescribed Fire Any fire ignited by management actions to meet specific objectives. A written, aproved prescribed fire plan must exist. This term replaces management ignited prescribed fire.

The specific Resource Management Objectives for the Kalmiopsis Wilderness are:

Maintain the natural ecosystems of the area and allow fire to play its role in those ecosystems.

Reduce the risks and consequences of unwanted wildfire in the Wilderness and adjacent areas.

Frequently Asked Questions
Why did you prepare a Wilderness Fire Management Plan? The Siskiyou National Forest Land Management Plan directed that Wildland Fire Use be implemented for maintaining wilderness values and required that Wilderness Fire Management Direction be developed.

What is a "Natural Fire"? A natural fire is a fire that is started by natural causes. Lightning is the most common cause.

Why is there a need for Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits? The objective of this management program is to use "Nature's" ignitions to further an essential ecological process. Fire is a part of the natural process of the forest, some plants and animals depend on it for their survival and regeneration. The natural forest landscape was developed with periodic fires and many species are adapted to fire.

Will fires be allowed to burn outside the Kalmiopsis Wilderness boundary? At this time fires will be confined to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. In the future a decision considering the values outside the wilderness and the allocations in the Forest Land Management Plan may be made which will allow Wildland Fire Use, if compatible.

Won't Wildland Fire Use be dangerous for recreationists that are visiting the wilderness? No! The area where a fire is burning will be well signed and the recreationists can enjoy other parts of the wilderness without being threatened by a fire. Safe vantage points will be identified where the recreationists can view the fire and resulting ecological process.

How many fire per year do you expect there to be? Statistically the Kalmiopsis Wilderness has experienced less than one lightning fire per year during a period of fifty years. So less than one per year statistically, yet in reality lightning fires tend to come in groups. It may be possible to have more than one Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits. Many other factors go into the decision to declare a lightning ignition a Wildland Fire Use, such as drought conditions, distance from the wilderness boundary, available resources to manage the fire, regional and national fire situations, available funds and threat to improvements and private property.

Who pays the cost of Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits Management? The costs associated with this management are paid for by a mix of appropriated funds. Emergency Fire Suppression funds will not be used unless a fire is declared a wildfire (an unwanted wildland fire not designated and managed as a prescribed fire and requiring appropriate suppression action).

Will a Human-caused ignition (other than prescribed fire) always be declared an unwanted wildland fire and be extinguished? Yes! Human-caused ignitions will always be declared an unwanted wildland fire and be extinguished using the most cost-effective means than include the protection of the wilderness resource. Persons causing an ignition are liable for the costs associated with the damage and suppression costs. It is not acceptable to use a human-caused ignition as a Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits because of the liability issue and that human-caused ignitions are not natural and are a "trampling of the Wilderness by man".

Is this the same idea that was used for the Yellowstone fires a few years ago? No! After the Yellowstone fires, a National Task Force reviewed what was then called the Prescribed Natural Fire Policy. The result of that review decided to strengthen policies and include an analysis of all wilderness areas to decide the appropriate use of Prescribed Natural Fire. Since then, our knowledge base and tools for using natural fire have increased. The natural fire issue was analysed in the Siskiyou National Forest Land Management Plan and identified that implementing Wildland Fire Use was appropriate.

Will there be Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits in the other wildernesses on the Siskiyou National Forest? Yes! The Siskiyou and Red Buttes Wildernesses are being considered for Wildland Fire Use. The Rogue River National Forest has the lead responsibility for developing the plan for the Red Buttes and the Klamath National Forest has the responsibility for the Siskiyou Wilderness. The Grassy Knob and the Wild Rogue Wildernesses are not being considered at this time but will be in the future. Problems associated with the Grassy Knob and the Wild Rogue are size, adjacent management allocations and private lands threatened with the use of Wildland Fire.

How do you manage an ignition as a Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits? The decision to manage a natural ignition as a Wildland Fire Use is done in three seperate stages. The first considers: time of year, projected weather conditions, dollars, resource availability, risk and location. If the ignition is identified as a potential Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits in the first stage, a second site specific analysis considers in detail: weather, topography, seasonal condition and risk. Once the Forest Supervisor decides to manage the ignition as a Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits, a validation process takes place as often as needed.

Will smoke degrade the visibility in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, a Class 1 airshed? Smoke from naturally occurring ignitions and wildland fires are exempt from the Clean Air standards. The thinking is that wildland fire is part of the ecosystem.

Will Fires be used as a management tool, for example to improve wildlife habitat, reduce natural debris buildup, provide visual variety, etc? The objective of Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits in wilderness is to allow natural caused fires to play their natural ecological role within the wilderness. This reduces the risk and consequences of a wildfire within or excaping from wilderness. This will produce many benefits including those mentioned in the question.

Why do you allow a fire to burn the wilderness and ruin the beauty? Wilderness is a place where the natural forces dominate the landscape and where human influence does not interfere. Natural fire, lightning, is a natural process that will define the landscape and ecological processes. It is fire that created the beauty and diversity in the first place.

Does Smokey Bear know about Wildland Fire Use for Resource Benefits? Smokey Bear has always had the message "Prevent Wildfire". What Smokey has been telling us is to prevent the human-caused fires. Nine out of 10 ignitions are Human-caused. Lightning is a type of ignition that we cannot prevent. In the wilderness, fire plays an important ecological role in sustaining healthy forest ecosystems.

Here is the hard to find map of the former Kalmiopsis Wilderness, showing how much of the wilderness was burned.

The Floristry Circus Klowns are removing these maps as fast as they can. The last map showing Burned areas was on 25 August and the Fire was not out of control supposedly until 5 September.

They were still sending the big fire fighting helicopters up with huge buckets of water two weeks ago this Friday. My wife and I were on the lower Rogue River on that date and saw a hugh helicopter carry a huge bucket of water up to douse something.

Below is the map before it disappears that show how much of the former Kalmiopsis Wilderness was burnt as of 25 August 2002.

The broken red line is the boundary of the former Kalmiopsis Wilderness. There wasn't much that wasn't burnt as of 25 August. It is still burning and will burn until the heavy October/November rains come.

Here is a little gem that the Enviral ridden Floristry Circus Klowns would like for everyone to forget:

(Fire officials have acknowledged a request was made to attempt to extinguish the Biscuit Fire when it was only 100 acres, but that request was turned down.)

bttt

Why can't we dust drop surplus enviro-nazi on fires (all enviro-nazi are surplus!)

No! This will deplete the supply of enviros.
We must institute a conservation program.
Who knows how many we will need to plug the hole in the ozone layer? ;o)

I vote for that!

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Sarah Foster did an excellent job with this. I worked on another aspect of the problem today - prevention of catastrophic loss of life and property through fuel reduction.

I thought you might be interested in some of the problems the Forest Service encounters in our area in thinning trees. (1) Wild and Scenic Rivers - no logging in the viewshed; (2)Endangered Species and Special species of concern - salamanders can only be surveyed for when it is warm and wet, spotted owls require hooting during two nesting seasons (2 years), mollusks must be surveyed for in both spring and fall, voles must be surveyed for, actions within coho critical habitat would a biological consultation and mitigation plan, Port Orford Cedar mitigations would need to be considered, and a marbled murrelet survey would have to be done. (Years ago, a contractor surveyor supposedly spotted one murrelet - a seabird. Although the individual bird he spotted was the wrong color. Neveretheless, surveys now must be done for every activity.

Now you have done all the biological survey work, you must consider how the thinning activity will effect sedimentation and cover under the Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Load limitations for the river. Then, if you plan to prescribe burn, you need to consider air quality rules. Staffing must also be considered. Generally, they thin, mechanically treat the slash and prescribe burn the undergrowth. Your air quality time period window for burning is generally in wet periods of spring and fall after/before snow. Unfortunately, your fire crew is seasonal and would not be on staff during that period.

So we work all this out an dot all the is and cross all the t's and we get the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) document for the planned action written and released for public comment. This is when we hear from all the envirals. Next, a decision is made to go ahead. Now we see the cycle of appeals.

Finaly, we get through it all (hopefully before it burns.) The project is put out for bid. If there was any salvage wood from prior fires, it probably has blue stain or some other rot that makes it unmarketable. The logging company may have to do work on the roads to bring it up to sunff for their trucks. That comes out of their profit. If any big logs come out of it, there are no nearby mills that take that kind of timber. They have been shut down, like Hi Ridge was. The cost of hauling the big logs to Eugene, etc., comes out of profit and the jobs for those millworkers are no longer in local communities.

What about smaller trees - well, we are in luck for some species. There is still a local plywood mill that will buy that.

Anyway, you get the drift. Doesn't mean we won't still try our damndest to do these preventative fuel reduction treatments. We did have some limited projects scheduled for this past fiscal year, but they pulled all the funding for that and road mnaintenance to fight the fires.

What do we need? We need a change in policy that will clearly prioritize the safety of humans and their property above all the rest. You know what? If you really pin the envirals down, they probably won't agree to that. Because if they did, they wouldn't be obstructing the Presidents Forest Plan.

BTTT!!!!!

The Something Undermining Our Nation
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Wouldn't want you to miss this one.