Copyright 2000 Sacramento Bee
December 24, 2000
By Jane Braxton Little
Bee Correspondent

The U.S. Forest Service has launched an aggressive recruitment drive aimed at hiring 3,500 new firefighters as a safeguard against a repeat of last summer's fire season, one of the worst on record.

Bolstered by $1.1 billion in additional funds approved by Congress -- including $65 million annually for three years for national forests in California -- the federal agency plans to add hand crews and fully staffed helicopters, engines and bulldozers to attack forest fires before they become unmanageable, said Matt Mathes, a Forest Service spokesman for the California region.

The California region will hire 1,500 new workers, more than 40 percent of the total nationwide. The Forest Service recruitment effort is the biggest work force mobilization in the memory of anyone working for the agency, Mathes said.

"It's important for the agency, and it's important for the land. Chief Michael Dombeck is telling us if you're not working on this, you may be working on the wrong thing," Mathes said.

The increases in funds and staff come in response to forest fires last summer, which burned about 6.8 million acres in the West. President Clinton asked Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to recommend how to reduce the effect of fires and the immediate hazards to communities.

The result is a national fire plan. In addition to strengthening the crews and equipment used to fight fires, the plan includes funding to reduce the forest fuels that contribute to the spread of wildfire.

Other components include cooperative programs supporting state and local community firefighting efforts and public education for private landowners whose homes are in or near national forests.

It is the national fire plan's hazardous-fuels reduction program that is generating the most controversy. Decades of fire suppression have created dense stands of small-diameter trees and an accumulation of brush and branches on the ground.

In California, the Forest Service will spend $24 million annually for three years to return the woods to a more natural state by removing small trees and brush, Mathes said.

The agency also plans to use controlled fires to burn the remaining fuels on 107,000 acres next year, an increase of 17,000 acres over last year's prescribed burns. The work is detailed in 168 separate projects spread across the state's 18 national forests.

If done "correctly and honestly," the plan to reduce forest fires can be extremely beneficial, said Jay Watson, the Wilderness Society's regional director. But he and other environmentalists will be watching to ensure that reducing forest fuels does not become misdirected into delivering large-diameter logs to sawmills.

"That's not going to reduce the risk of fire. Big healthy trees are not the problem," Watson said.

Timber industry officials are also concerned about the fuels reduction portion of the national plan. Fires will continue to worsen as long as the forests continue to have a buildup of fuels on the ground, said Chris Nance, a spokesman for the California Forestry Association.

Until the Forest Service develops a cohesive strategy for using thinning, timber harvests and prescribed fire to lessen the fire hazard, recruiting more firefighters and buying more equipment doesn't make much sense, Nance said.

"Throwing money for equipment and people doesn't reduce the threat of wildfire," he said.

The additional funds will be in addition to $110 million in annual funding for firefighting in the state, where there are complexities dealing with an ecosystem that is adapted to natural fire and 33 million residents.

"This is an opportunity to fix things -- to get to where we should be with firefighting," Mathes said.

Most of the new firefighter jobs will be temporary positions for men and women willing to wield shovels and other hand tools used to build fire lines designed to halt the spread of fire. Pay ranges from $7.75 an hour to $16.09 an hour, said Mathes.

"It's a tough job, but it can also be very satisfying work," he said.

In California, the Forest Service is hiring 36 new hand crews with 20 people per crew. Officials are also recruiting staff for eight new helicopters, 56 engines and 16 bulldozers. Current seasonal employees will probably fill most of those positions, making room for workers new to the agency.

To explain the work and the hiring process, the Forest Service is holding recruitment open houses on Jan. 3 in Fresno, Jan. 4 in East Los Angeles, Jan. 5 in Glendora, Jan. 6 in South Central Los Angeles and Jan. 6 in Sacramento at the Holiday Inn.

An open house Wednesday in Redding drew over 100 people interested in 90 new jobs, said Duane Lyon, a spokesman for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Applications and information also are available through the U.S. Forest Service Web site(www.fs.fed.us/fsjobs) or by calling a toll-free telephone number, (877) 813-3476.

The deadline for the first round of applications is Jan. 19. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years old. Error: Unable to read footer file.