Arizona Wildfires Spark Management Controversy

By Cat Lazaroff

EAGAR, Arizona, June 26, 2002 (ENS) - President George W. Bush visited Arizona on Tuesday to review the devastation caused by a massive wildfire that has scorched almost 375,000 acres outside the resort town of Show Low. The fire has prompted accusations by government officials and environmental groups, each blaming the other for creating the conditions that allowed the devastating blaze to develop.

The combined Rodeo and Chediski fires, which merged on Sunday, have destroyed more than 150 homes and dozens of other buildings, and forced the evacuation of thousands of people in the fire's path. Fire officials say just five percent of the fire's spread has been contained, and the weather continues to conspire against the 2,300 firefighters battling the blaze, with strong, dry winds whipping the flames through the trees and heavy underbrush.

President Bush looks out the window of Air Force One during an aerial tour of the Arizona forest fires. (White House photo by Eric Draper)

"I want you to know that a lot of people in our country are pulling for you," Bush told the displaced families. "They understand the suffering that families are going through because of worry about your most precious possession, your home."

Bush and Allbaugh announced that the president has declared a major disaster in Arizona and ordered $20 million in federal aid for the areas affected by the Rodeo fire, including residents of Apache and Navajo Counties and the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.

"The situation in Arizona is extremely serious, and it is critical that the state is able to focus on what is of paramount importance - combating these fires," Allbaugh said. "The dedicated men and women fighting these fires should not have to worry about how the work will be paid."

Federal fire management assistance covers 75 percent of eligible state and local firefighting costs, including expenses for field camps, equipment, supplies, shelters, evacuations, traffic control and arson investigation.

"Let me make this clear to you: we're all in this together," Bush said. "These fires wreak havoc on everybody who stands in the way. They don't pick and choose."

Not everyone is united in assigning responsibility for the massive fire. Both the Chediski and Rodeo fires were started by human activities, one by a lost hiker who lit a small fire to signal for help.

But the underlying cause of the fires' rapid and catastrophic spread is the decades old build up of brush and other fuels in the forest. Years of fire suppression have allowed unnatural amounts of underbrush to collect, leaving the forest floor littered with dry, flammable materials.

News vans line up near the leading edge of the Rodeo fire on Sunday. (Photo courtesy Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest)

"I've been here 40 years and I've never seen the health of this forest so bad," Hull said. "The word just does not seem to get back to the environmentalists and the courts who keep us from cleaning up the forests. Hopefully the message is going forward to Congress to do something about cleaning these forests, something nature did on a regular basis before people were here."

On Tuesday, Bush said the government must work to "maintain the forests so that they're healthy and viable, and not become kindling boxes."

Conservation groups argue that some lawmakers are using the wildfires now sweeping through several drought stricken western states to push for more logging, rather than focusing on the unsustainable forest management practices the groups blame for bringing the forests to their current fuel laden state.

"Scientists have determined these fire problems stem from three problems: nearly a century of fire suppression that removed the natural role fire plays in healthy forests, an extreme multi-year drought and decades of commercial logging that removed large, fire resistant trees," said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. "For years the Sierra Club has been urging the Forest Service to do more prescribed burning, to reduce flammable brush near threatened communities, and we've been asking Congress to devote more money to do the job right."

Last year, the General Accounting Office (GAO) - the investigative arm of Congress - was asked by the senior Republican members of the House and Senate resources committees to review the impact that appeals and lawsuits were having on the ability of the U.S. Forest Service to carry out hazardous fuel reduction projects, such as controlled burns or brush thinning.

Prescribed burns - fires set to reduce underbrush in a controlled manner - can help prevent massive wildfires. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

Besides environmental groups, fuel reduction projects were also challenged by recreation groups, private industry representatives and individuals, the GAO found.

"Blaming environmentalists for these terrible fires and other demogoguery is simply irresponsible," said Jane Danowitz, director of the nonprofit Heritage Forests Campaign. "Our focus must be on protecting citizens and communities in the fire's path."

Danowitz noted that a report released last year by the Agriculture Department's Inspector General found that Forest Service managers had diverted millions in forest restoration funding - which helps reduce fire risks - to start new timber sales on federal lands.

"The Forest Service must focus its resources on keeping citizens and communities safe instead of subsidizing commercial logging that increases fire risk," Danowitz added.

In one particularly damning statement, the Center for Biological Diversity charged the state of Arizona with opposing and halting a controlled burn set by the Forest Service to reduce fuel loads in the same region now burning in the Rodeo fire. Residents complained that the prescribed burn caused too much smoke, and state air quality officials asked the Forest Service to douse the flames, the Center noted.

FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh at the site of one of the worst wildfires of 2000, the Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico - which began when a prescribed burn blew out of control. (Photo by Andrea Booher/FEMA Photo News)

"The governor is opportunistically and cynically using this ongoing tragedy to further an anti-environmental agenda," said Brian Segee of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Not only do we strongly support community protection efforts such as wildland urban interface treatments, prescribed burning and small diameter thinning, we are deeply involved in ongoing collaborative and governmental efforts to make such goals a reality."

Last week, the federal Office of Management and Budget released $120 million to the Departments of Agriculture and Interior for wildfire suppression and "emergency rehabilitation" of burned lands. The funds do not cover fire prevention activities, but support the agencies' efforts to keep up their record of suppressing 95 percent of wildland fires as soon as they start - before they have a chance to help clear out unnatural fuel loads.

"These funds are essential to the wildland fire suppression effort and to protect our nation's communities," said Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman. "However, fighting wildland fire is only one part of addressing wildland fire risks. Another critical aspect is reducing the buildup of hazardous fuels in our forests and grasslands by restoring fire adapted ecosystems."

Other groups, including the Student Conservation Association (SCA), are working to help reduce the risks that fires will damage homes and businesses, while allowing fires to burn in natural areas. The SCA has launched a volunteer driven wildland fire defense program to help reduce the risks to homeowners in more than a dozen states.

"For homeowners along the wildland-urban interface, the question of fire is not 'if' but 'when,'" said SCA fire education corps director Jody Handly. "Being properly prepared can often make the difference between surviving a wildland fire and losing everything."

The SCA members plans to create maps to allow natural resource managers to monitor and act on changes in environmental conditions, and to aid firefighters in locating populated areas where homes may be threatened. The group's volunteers will work with homeowner associations, neighborhood groups and local officials to remove potential fire fuels such as large quantities of dead or dry vegetation, or discarded flammables such as lumber, around homes and businesses.

In cooperation with homeowners, SCA volunteers will inspect the perimeter of homes using nationally recognized Firewise protocols to evaluate building materials, outside storage practices, and proximity to the natural environment.

President Bush greets members of the fire department in Show Low, Arizona on Tuesday. (White House photo by Eric Draper)

"We don't have to have this kind of fire burning in the national forest, threatening communities and destroying homes," Bosworth said. "The way is by doing some active management on the land. That way is thinning the forest, getting fire back into these fire dependent ecosystems."

For more information on wildfire management options, visit the federal National Fire Plan site at: http://www.fireplan.gov/, and the Center for Biological Diversity at: http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/Programs/fire/index.html