From The New West Blog
The WUI and The Western Fire Season
Laura Zuckerman has a pretty comprehensive story today for Reuters that looks at the overall outlook of this summer's Western fire season, with a primer on how more homes in the Wildland Urban Interface (know as the WUI) and the effects of global warming are changing the regional and national, approach to firefighting.
That's not really news to most of us in the West who have watched tactics evolve first from the warfare-like 10 a.m. rule to a realization in the 60s and 70s that fires are natural and in some cases, should be managed, not suppressed. Now though, fire managers stuck trying to balance managing fires for natural benefit and protecting property (and in some cases lives) as more and more homes creep closer to the wildland interface. Throw global warming into the mix and you're also weighing which fires are natural and beneficial to the ecosystem, and which can turn into catastrophic ones that can actually do more harm than good -- in the remote wildlands or in the interface.
Oh, and then there's the question of how to fund all of this.
Zuckerman's story doesn't fully address all the issues hanging out there, but it does raise some of the more important ones and gives some good fodder to think about and discuss as we head into another fire season.
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Watchdog Group’s Lawsuit Reignites Fire Retardant Debate
A new lawsuit has been filed against the Forest Service and its use of chemical fire retardant to combat wildfires.
The Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics filed their second lawsuit in Missoula’s US District Court Wednesday, claiming the Forest Service is in violation of the Endangered Species Act and other laws because the chemical retardant does in fact significantly harm wildlife in lakes and rivers.
“Our goal all along, from day one, is to end the war on fire and turn it into a management, a police action, an armistice,” said FSEEE Executive Director Andy Stahl.
The FSEEE is a private, nonprofit organization based in Eugene, Oregon. Stahl says the Forest Service has nearly bankrupted itself by fighting fire -- about half of the agency's budget is spent on fighting fire -- and the time has come to change that.
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fire retardant lawsuit
Judge Clears Mark Rey and Forest Service of Contempt
U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, overseer of the Forest Service, calmly walked out of the U.S. District Court in Missoula Wednesday evening cleared of contempt charges.
District Court Judge Donald W. Molloy ruled that although the Forest Service dragged its feet in completing environmental analyses on the effects of fire retardant on fish, his previous court order was eventually complied with.
Judge Molloy said the issue of contempt was unfortunate, but it at least got the government agency moving.
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FireSafe Montana Conference
Rural Growth, Climate and the Wildland-Urban Interface
The wildfire issue is a pressing one in the New West. Fire seasons are getting longer and drier by the year, fires are more severe, and, to top it off, the modern western migration is bringing an unprecedented influx of homes into the wildland-urban interface (WUI).
As wildland fire suppression operations increasingly consume dwindling Forest Service budgets and taxpayers grow ever wearier of footing the pricey bill of defending homes in the WUI, the onus for preparation and protection is increasingly falling on homeowners and local communities.
In 2006, interested parties from the public and private sector gathered in Helena at the Montana Communities and Wildfire Conference to begin a new discussion on the WUI and the West’s changing fire seasons. According to organizers, participants expressed overwhelming support for the formation of a non-governmental non-profit to perform public education, outreach and on-the-ground assistance in wildfire mitigation in the WUI. The result is FireSafe Montana, which held its first annual conference in Bozeman this week.
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Bison Reintroduction Discussed
Revamping the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge Conservation Plan
Officials from the Lewistown-based U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) held a public meeting in Bozeman on Thursday, answering questions and taking comments on the formation of a 15-year comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Montana’s treasured Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR), the second largest national refuge in the lower 48. The previous plan was written in 1986.
The 1.1 million acre refuge along the Missouri River and Fort Peck Reservoir in northeastern Montana is home to well over 200 species of birds and a host of mammals including bighorn sheep, elk, pronghorn antelope, swift fox and the endangered black-footed ferret. The CMR is also a major recreational use area for hunters and fishermen.
The FWS extended the public scoping comment deadline to February 29, 2008. There will be two more public comment periods after plan alternatives and a draft are formed. The FWS hopes to have a final plan finished by Fall 2011.
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Introducing...
A New Magazine: The New West
Driving past most any Western city these days is a little like watching those time-lapse films back in grade school. Empty fields become bulldozed lots become framed houses become finished homes with trucks in the driveway and new grass in the yard.
It’s a time of dramatic change in the Mountain West. And I’m excited to say that we at NewWest.Net are now launching a quarterly print magazine to help us tell the big story of growth and change in the region.
The best way to check out our magazine is to subscribe. We want to know who’s interested in The New West, so we have made the magazine available free to qualified subscribers who answer a short questionnaire.
We’d love to hear your input and feedback on our new venture. Comments? Criticism? Story ideas? I’d love to hear them. You can email me at . And click “more” below for the full announcement.
[more]WESTERN WILDFIRES
Senator Baucus Strategizes on Firefighting Funding
In the wake of a particularly long, dry and costly fire season in the West, Montana Senator Max Baucus talked strategy with state and federal firefighting officials in Missoula Monday on how best to fight and fund management of wildfires in 2008 and beyond.
Baucus arrived at the Smokejumper Center with a couple of his own ideas, ways agencies can escape the cycle of "robbing Peter to pay Paul," as he put it -- tapping money from other sources when firefighting bills exceed what’s been appropriated.
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Montana Wildfires
Battle Over Chopper Safety Hindered Firefighting EffortsThe Flathead Beacon has a startling story today about a pitched battle within the Montana state firefighting community over the safety of helicopter operations and specifically the actions of the state's chief pilot, Chuck Brenton. The controversy began with a harrowing incident on the 2006 Bearmouth Fire outside Missoula, and when the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation initially declined to conduct an investigation it bled over into the 2007 fire season, when some fire crews were ordered not to fly in DNRC choppers for a month in the midst of the fire season. Read all the details here on the Beacon website.
Timber giant takes a hit
Plum Creek’s Risky Businesses
As the Plum Creek Timber Company becomes increasingly prominent in the real estate game, the nation’s biggest private landowner is learning to deal with the ebbs and flows of those two unpopular headline grabbers of late: the weak housing market and its associated credit worries.
Less than a week after the timber giant reported that third quarter profits were down 36 percent from last year, the company’s director of land asset management in Montana, Jerry Sorensen, spoke to a room of about 300 – including prominent developers, Realtors, planners and economists from around the Northwest – about Plum Creek’s transition into the real estate market at the second annual NewWest.Net Real Estate and Development of the Northern Rockies Conference. Sorensen opened up his presentation with a Bob Dylan quote: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
“The timber industry,” Sorensen said, “is certainly in transition – everybody knows that.”
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