Free Republic

Last night, the Day Fire exploded, burning 50,000 acres and traveling 11 miles west. from AP Sep 17, 2006 11:48 am US/Pacific Day Wildfire Explodes Westward, Threatens Fillmore (AP) CASTAIC, Calif. Offshore winds are fanning a huge wildfire burning in the Los Padres National Forest, prompting voluntary evacuations for portions of Fillmore and a group of homes along a highway connecting Santa Paula and Ojai. U.S. Forest Service officials say that since yesterday afternoon, winds have pushed the so-called Day Fire about 10 miles west and have burned several thousand new acres. It has scorched more than 125 square miles...

The Schwarzenegger administration signaled its support Tuesday for a plan to drop Clinton-era protections that barred road-building and other development on nearly a third of the country's national forest land, including more than 4 million acres in California. The rollback, proposed by the Bush administration last summer, would repeal the most ambitious conservation move of Clinton's presidency — a rule that blocked commercial timber cutting and road construction on 58.5 million acres of national forest holdings. In its place, the Bush proposal would create a system that relies heavily on individual states to decide whether the forest lands should be...

<p>YAKIMA, Wash. — Months ago, national fire managers predicted the 2004 wildfire season (search) would be a bad one in the West.</p> <p>Now, they're changing their forecast: It's going to be worse.</p> <p>With unseasonably warm temperatures in March and April, the potential loss of heavy air tankers for safety reasons and a years-long drought continuing, Western states and the federal government are facing the possibility of another devastating fire season.</p>