Prescribed burns are proposed for fighting wildfires in national forests
Copyright 2000 Associated Press
December 17, 2000,
SALT LAKE CITY - A plan to fight wildfires with manmade fires is part of a proposal for the six national forests in Utah.
"By setting fires under specific conditions, we can manage those fires to benefit the forests and minimize harm to life and property," said the Forest Service's Frances Reynolds, who works at the Dixie National Forest in southern Utah.
However, there have been objections to prescribed burns in the past.
Loggers have a history of resisting the use of prescribed fires in areas where timber might be harvested. Environmentalists often have resisted any interference with forests as tampering with nature, and some view forest management as a disguise for logging profits at the expense of the ecology.
Both sides have softened a bit, especially in the years since the fires in Yellowstone National Park in 1988.
Few disagree that Yellowstone not only healed but became more healthy because the natural fire cycle finally ran its course.
"Since then, we have learned these lessons over and over," said Reynolds.
The proposal follows the end of the most expensive wildfire season ever in the United States. In the end, roughly 91,600 uncontrolled fires spread over about 7.3 million acres.
In Utah, about 264,000 acres burned at a cost of about $8.5 million.
Even though many agree prescribed fires can go a long way toward preventing another wildfire season like last summer's, the Forest Service realizes some will quarrel with the broad-brush plans they have proposed.
Ultimately, the managers of Utah's national forests will have to suggest the areas where prescribed fires will be used.
"One area of discussion will probably be the use of prescribed burn in commercial timber areas," Reynolds added, "and the health effects of smoke and its effect on municipal watersheds."
Dick Carter of the High Uintas Preservation Council said one danger is that the new fire philosophy is so broad that forest managers won't use it aggressively.
"I am just very nervous, given what happened this summer, that the Forest Service won't take the next step forward it needs to" and implement the strategy, he said.
Comments on the wildfire strategy will be accepted through next week. The proposal is an amendment to the forest plans that guide the management of the Dixie, Ashley, Manti-LaSal Uinta, Wasatch-Cache and Fishlake national forests.
The Forest Service will produce a final plan following the comment period.