For the week of July 16 - 22, 2003

Report encourages selective fire suppression

Idaho fire policy takes heat

---

By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

As Idaho’s wildfire season is dawning, several government watchdog groups have released a report contending federal land managers are using outdated fire plans that ignore the best science and promote unhealthy forests.

Overall, the fire plans for eight Idaho national forests and four Bureau of Land Management regions also promote excessive spending, the groups said. The Sawtooth National Forest, which comprises most of the Forest Service managed land in Blaine County, scored a "D" in the report. The adjacent Salmon-Challis National Forest, which stretches from Salmon on the north to Arco, scored a "B."

Experts agree that to restore the health of Western forests and parts of its range land, they need to allow more fires to burn.

"Too many land managers still have a one-size-fits-all policy for every fire in Idaho," said Joe Fox, a retired Smokejumper from McCall. "Instead, we badly need specific fire management plans for specific places. We need to continue to fight fires in areas where private property and lives are at stake, while conducting ground-level monitoring on remote fires in rugged areas. Otherwise, we’ll waste money and needlessly put firefighters’ lives at risk."

The study, authored by the Idaho Conservation League and Taxpayers for Common Sense, examined Idaho lands managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, encompassing over 32 million acres, 60 percent of Idaho. The report focused on required fire management plans, which direct fire suppression, prescribed burning, wildland fire use and fuels reduction projects on federal lands.

The study overwhelmingly found that Idaho’s land managers rely on antiquated plans, said the groups. Of 13 plans studied, only two fully complied with new policies established by federal land management agencies after the busy 1994 fire season.

"Land managers are handcuffed by out-dated fire plans that essentially dictate all fires be snuffed, all the time, regardless of potential costs and benefits," said Jonathan Oppenheimer, North Idaho associate for the Idaho Conservation League and the report’s lead author.

Renewed political interest in forest management surfaced following the 2000 fire season when Idaho and Montana were scorched by an above average fire season. The debate heated up even more last summer when fires torched significant portions of Colorado and the Southwest.

In Idaho, the Craters of the Moon National Monument, and the Clearwater National Forest are the only non-wilderness areas where managers have broad flexibility in deciding how to manage fires. All other forests and BLM districts have limited, out-of-date fire policies, according to the report.

Last year, the BLM and Forest Service spent a record-breaking $1.7 billion nationwide to suppress fires. In the past decade, federal wildland fire fighting costs exceeded $650 million in Idaho alone.

"Taxpayers spent $650 million fighting wildfire in Idaho in the last decade," said Keith Ashdown, Vice President of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "In return, the public rightfully asks land managers to have local plans for maximum flexibility. This report indicates government agencies fail to meet this responsibility."

The report also examined effectiveness of planned burning programs around the state and discovered the prescribed burns are not conducted as frequently as planned. The report found that, for years that data were available, the Forest Service burned 72 percent of the acres it planned to burn, whereas the BLM burned only 16 percent of targeted acreage.

Bill Murphy, the Sawtooth National Forest’s north zone fire management officer, said that the forest’s Red Tree Fuels Reduction Project is a step toward choosing the battles the forest wishes to fight.

"We’re part of the ecosystem now. All those homes are there. We can’t change that," he said. "What this project is hoping to do is at least help make those place safer."

Murphy agreed that more fires need to run their courses.

"Fires are part of the process, and the longer we keep putting them out, we’re not helping," he said. "We’re just delaying the inevitable. But the tough thing is, we can’t just let them burn, either, because we’re dealing with public safety and firefighter safety.

"It’s a challenge."

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.