Fires Claim 4.4 Million Acres in US

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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9/7/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

The forests are burning! Help! The US, Brazil, Indonesia, Russia,

and numerous other countries' forests are ablaze. A forest

conservation and restoration agenda is key to global forest

sustainability. Protect ancient forests, ecologically manage

production forests, plant trees for plantation and restoration

ecology, cut down on carbon output, and get going!

g.b.

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Title: Fires Claim 4.4 Million Acres in US

Source: Associated Press

Date: September 7, 1999

Byline: PAULINE ARRILLAGA

PHOENIX (AP) - How did Tom Kelly spend his summer? In the past four

months, the U.S. Forest Service firefighter has been dispatched to 12

blazes in four states, and he doesn't anticipate a vacation anytime

soon.

``There do come times when you wish for not only a little rain but a

lot of rain,'' Kelly, of Dolores, Colo., said during a rare break

from battling a 63,000-acre fire in California's San Bernardino

Mountains last week.

``Until there's a weather change,'' he added, ``the potential for

continuedfires is very great. There's no reason why it couldn't get

worse.''

For some states in the wildfire-plagued West, it's already been bad

enough. More than 4.4 million acres have been consumed this year in

nearly 71,000 fires nationwide, with more than half of the scorched

land in Alaska and Nevada.

That's the most land lost to wildfires since the record 1996 fire

season, in which 6.7 million acres were scorched in 115,025 blazes,

surpassing a 1952 record for acres burned.

Blazes continued to rage Tuesday in California, Nevada, Oregon, Texas

and Washington.

The good news is that cooler weather in the Pacific Northwest and an

active monsoon season in the Southwest have reduced the risk of fire

in those regions.

The bad news is that as hot, dry weather persists in other parts of

the country, including Texas and California, the fire season could

stay active well into the fall.

``In Southern California we sometimes find ourselves fighting fires

on Christmas Day,'' Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said.

``Things are really getting dry, the wind is picking up and it's

still warm. We're in it for the foreseeable future.''

The past two years proved to be relatively mild fire seasons thanks

to cooler, wetter conditions produced by El Nino. But the wet weather

also allowed fuels such as sagebrush and grass to build up just as El

Nino's counterpart, La Nina, arrived with drier, warmer weather.

``That kind of set the stage for an active season,'' said Rick Ochoa,

a fire weather forecaster at the National Interagency Fire Center in

Boise, Idaho.

On Aug. 4 a front of dry thunderstorms - consisting of little rain

and lots of lightning - moved into Nevada, sparking dozens of

wildfires. In just four days, more than 1 million acres were

scorched.

To date more than 1.4 million acres have been burned in 917 fires

this year in Nevada - ``the largest number of acres that have burned

as far back as we can find records for,'' said Bureau of Land

Management spokeswoman Jo Simpson.

While losses to homes and other buildings were minimal, officials

estimate it will cost $50 million and take up to six years to restore

scorched rangeland and wildlife habitat.

``These fires have really hurt,'' said Buster Dufurrena, a cattle

rancher who lost several thousand acres near Denio, Nev. ``One of my

neighbors lost 50 percent of his allotment.''

California had been experiencing a light fire season until Aug. 23,

when more than 3,000 lightning strikes hit the northern slice of the

state in just 12 hours, scorching about 150,000 acres of grazing and

timber land, as well as some campgrounds and wildlife habitat.

Karen Terrill of the California Department of Forestry and Fire

Protection called it the state's worst lightning siege since 1987,

when 12,000 strikes sparked 1,200 fires and burned more than 800,000

acres.

Within days of the Northern California fires, several blazes erupted

in Southern California - among them the giant blaze in the San

Bernardino Mountains, started by an illegal campfire.

So far about 360,000 acres have been scorched in some 7,400 fires,

just above the state's annual average of about 320,000 acres. The

blazes claimed the lives of a firefighter and a Northern California

woman, and destroyed dozens of homes.

In Alaska more than 1 million acres burned in 475 wildfires this

year, surpassing the annual average of 600,000 acres. Some cabins and

sheds have been destroyed.

Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah have experienced relatively

mild fire seasons thanks to rainy weather.

``It's really been a mixed bag of a fire season,'' said Don

Smurthwaite, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center.

But one thing is sure, he added: ``The potential for more fires is

definitely there.''

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