News: California Fires Back at U.S. Forest Service

Saturday, March 8, 2008

News: California Fires Back at U.S. Forest Service

- Roadless Policy is No Impediment to Fighting Fires

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--California’s Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman today questioned a road less area speech delivered by U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey as being

"difficult to comprehend".

Chrisman said Rey’s remarks regarding California road less areas and fire suppression costs, delivered yesterday during a Wildland Urban Interface conference in Reno,

“make no sense at all and are contrary to the facts,”

since California’s roadless area policy provides an exception for the construction of roads to fight fires.

Since day one we have been clear and consistent with our roadless policy and it has always included an exception for roads to be built to fight fires, Chrisman said. In fact, we have put this in writing several times and it has in turn been acknowledged by the Forest Service.
So, its difficult to comprehend Mark’s comments since they are contrary to the facts and to California’s roadless area policy.

California’s policy, that the Forest Service fails to recognize in management plans for four Southern California forests, specifically allows for roads to be built for fighting wildfires.
Letters exchanged between Chrisman and two Forest Service regional foresters, attest to that fact.

On Feb. 28, Chrisman and California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. filed a U.S. District court complaint contesting four Southern California forest management plans. The litigation alleges that the Forest Service failed to consider California’s roadless area policy in violation of the National Forest Management Act.

In addition, the complaint claims that the Forest Service failed to conduct appropriate environmental analysis in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Attachments available at: www.resources.ca.gov/keeping_californias_roadless_areas_roadless.html

Source: News: California Fires Back at U.S. Forest Service

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

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Saturday, March 8, 2008