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The U.S. Forest Service has not developed national guidelines to assess the risks communities face from wildfires and is unable to ensure that the most important fire prevention projects are funded first, an independent government audit has found. And while the majority of catastrophic wildfires occur in the West, nearly 58 percent of the total acres treated in fiscal year 2004 were in the southeastern states, the report said. "The Forest Service cannot clearly identify the level of risk to communities from wildfire," it said. "It cannot demonstrate to stakeholders its accomplishments in reducing those risks with the funds provided."...

Logging trucks are again rumbling through town after a nearly 15-year hiatus. The Forest Service has reopened - or has plans to reopen - numerous drainages south of Eagle Ranch to logging... There are currently two active sales south of Eagle, with another in the works, said Cary Green, the White River National Forest's timber management assistant for the Eagle area. The 60-acre Beecher Gulch salvage timber sale, on Hardscrabble Mountain, sold in 2005, and about 500,000 board feet of timber is currently being harvested... A typical 2,000-square foot, single-family home requires about 27,000 board feet of framing lumber, paneling...

Federal officials on Friday were tracking 60 large, active fires that were burning more than 1 million acres, or more than 1,500 square miles, across the West. The states in the region with the most number of fires included Idaho, Nevada, and Montana, according to the Web site of the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center, composed of various federal agencies that coordinate to battle wildfires. In Idaho, fires had burned more than 231,000 acres, or 360 square miles, the center reported. State officials toured fire camps to survey the damage -- as well as to tell federal firefighting crews here,...

Apple Fire Update: September 03, 2002: Fire Information: (541)496-0235 Size: 13,595 acres Started: August 16, 2002 Containment: 75 percent Expected Containment: September 5 at 6:00 p.m. Line to build: 3 miles Location: 21 miles east of Glide near the area of Dry Creek Resources Assigned: 27 crews, 10 helicopters, 27 engines, 20 watertenders, 7 dozers. Total 912 personnel. Objectives: Keep the fire south of the North Umpqua River, west of Twin Lakes and 4770 Road, east of Panther Ridge, and north of a line between Lake in the Woods and Snowbird Mountain. Ensure firefighter and public safety, make management decisions...

AZUSA, Calif., 7:52 a.m. PDT September 3, 2002 - A wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains that forced people to flee campgrounds over the Labor Day weekend has grown to 14,429 acres, officials said Tuesday. The blaze, which started Sunday afternoon about 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was 5 percent contained, said Linda Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. It was expected that the wildfire would be fully contained by Sept. 10, Steinberg said.

In the last essay, titled "Paul Bunyan Meets Sierra Sue Happy and the Democrats," we learned that Paul Bunyan, as well as many other American folk heroes, were being deconstructed and then reconstructed into politically correct social icons by leftist groups like the Sierra Club aka Sierra Sue Happy. We found out that the Democratic Party has become the legislative arm of the radicalized environmental movement. We learned that 6 million acres of Western forests have burned to the ground, some of it to bedrock. This will ensure that some of those forests may take generations to grow back. That...

LOS ANGELES, Aug 19, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- With President Bush expected this week to call for a scaling back of overgrown forests that have turned into fire hazards, the Wilderness Society said Monday that the environmental movement should not be blamed for wildfires that have burned through nearly 6 million acres this year. The organization issued a statement denying charges from some western lawmakers that environmentalists have used legal challenges to derail efforts to clear out forest areas thick with tinder-dry brush and small trees and, instead, argued that the U.S. Forest Service was too...

Bush to push for thinning The Associated Press, 8/21/02 4:21 AM MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) -- President Bush will address forest health issues when he visits Medford on Thursday, most likely pushing for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger. When they reach Medford, the president and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith will receive a briefing on Oregon wildfires, according to Joe Sheffo, Smith's press secretary. Bush and Smith will then be taken on a tour of the area burned by the Squire fire southeast of Ruch. The fire scorched nearly 3,000 acres of public and private land after...

Bush expected to promote new forest policy 08/21/02MICHAEL MILSTEIN and JIM BARNETT When he speaks Thursday in Medford, President Bush is expected to push for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger. And he will likely support legislation streamlining environmental rules that have slowed many Western logging projects. It will plainly signal the administration's approach to forest management against the backdrop of epic wildfires burning throughout Oregon and the West.It could also incite a storm of opposition from environmental groups that argue logging only will do more harm to Western forests. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said Tuesday...

AUGUST 22, 09:40 ET Bush Unveils Plan to Fight Wildfires By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — Embarking on a three-day Western swing expected to haul in at least $5 million for Republican politicians, President Bush is taking a stand on one of the region's thorniest issues by proposing that more logging in national forests would help prevent devastating wildfires. Bush was traveling Thursday from his Texas ranch to southwestern Oregon, near the California state line, for a briefing on local fires that have ravaged the area and an aerial view of the damage. The president was...

To the dismay of environment-destroying "environmentalists," President Bush today shifted federal policy toward thinning national forests to reduce the risk of wildfires. "The forest policy of our government is misguided policy. It doesn't work," Bush told cheering residents outside Medford, Ore., near the state's largest fire on record. "We need to thin. We need to make our forest healthy by using some common sense. "We need to understand that if we let kindling build up and there's a lightning strike, you gonna get yourself a big fire. That's what we gotta understand." It makes sense to clear brush, he...

Bush's message to Oregon: His forest plan equals jobs 08/23/02, TOM DETZEL "Times are tough, but let me tell you something -- so is America," he added. Bush issued a stinging critique of the forest policies that led to this year's record fire season -- policies expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion for fire suppression. Nationwide, nearly 6 million acres, an area the size of New Hampshire, have burned. He said red tape, regulations and "endless litigation" have become the tools for delaying worthwhile thinning projects. His plan would allow emergency thinning in the highest-risk areas while speeding...

Fires burning across Oregon The Associated Press8/23/02 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:...

Still wrong after all these years Worldwatch misdiagnoses the planet again by Ronald Bailey The World Summit on Sustainable Development will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. The World Summit is the 10th anniversary follow-up to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.At the Earth Summit, ideological environmentalism achieved considerable success in advancing its agenda for reshaping the world's economy. That Summit saw the adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the incorporation of the precautionary principle in international treaties.In the 10 years since the Earth...

POLSON, Mont. -- 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. "Here in Montana, we are starting to see people from out of state and people who have direct ties to the Earth Liberation Front, and that concerns us," said Bill Fox, of the agency's Northern Region office in Missoula. Fox spoke Wednesday to members of the Montana Wood Products Association, gathered in Polson for their annual meeting. Earlier this summer, ELF told officials at the Bitterroot National Forest that all salvage logging in...

WINDS PUSH BISCUIT FLAMES OVER LINE Published: August 31, 2002 By Bill Lundquist, Pilot Staff Writer Chetco Effect weather conditions pushed the Biscuit Fire Wednesday afternoon over a contingency fire line near Tolman Ranch, but no structures were lost. Alaska Incident Management Team Information Officer Bill Beebe said crews were moved back and helicopters dropped water. Mike Frazier, with the U.S. Forest Service, said the area around Tolman Ranch has been cleared and protected, so there should be no danger to structures. Due to the increased fire activity, the estimated containment date has been moved to Sept. 6. In North...

August 22, 2002 President Announces Healthy Forest Initiative Remarks by the President on Forest Health and Preservation The Compton Arena Central Point, Oregon Master of ceremonies was Lars Larson with KXL, Portland. Senator Gordon Smith introduced the President of the United States. 12:54 P.M. PDT (YES! He was on time -- no 2 hour haircut holding up the airlines!) THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for coming. Thanks for -- please be seated, unless of course you don't have a chair. (Laughter.) Thanks for that. Thank you all for such a warm welcome. It's such an honor to be...

JOSEPH PERKINS New thinking on managing nation's forests? Joseph Perkins SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE August 23, 2002 President Bush was in the Pacific Northwest yesterday where he unveiled a new forest management plan that aims to prevent the kind of catastrophic wildfires that have charred nearly 6 million acres this year. That have destroyed more than 2,000 homes and buildings, sent tens of thousands of people fleeing for refuge and taken the lives of 20 brave firefighters. That have laid waste to hundreds of millions of trees, destroyed wildlife habitat, and damaged forest soils and watersheds for decades to come. Even...

<p>"While visiting the west coast this week, I saw the destructive effects of one of the worst wildfire seasons in history," Bush said in his weekly radio address.</p> <p>"As we work to put out the fires and bring relief to their victims, we also have a responsibility to prevent the devastation that can be caused by future fires," he added.</p> <p>Bush said U.S. forest policy needed to focus on thinning out trees to reduce the incidence and damage from wildfires. He characterized the current U.S. forest policy as a, "hands-off approach" that was "devastating to our environment."</p>

Last Update:8:30 a.m. (MDT); August 27, 2002   Six fires reported for yesterday.  Three fires reported by the State of Arizona, two fires on Santa Fe NF, and one fire on Fort Apache Reservation.  One new large fire (i.e. fires >100 acres), LAKES FIRE on Santa Fe NF.   ARIZONAPACK RAT FIRE, located along the Mogollon Rim, 15 miles north of Payson, AZ, is now over 1,210 acres.  Burning in mixed conifer and chaparral on Coconino and Tonto National Forest's, the fire became very active yesterday with increased torching, spotting, and upslope runs.  A number of spot fires were found across...