Forest Service may let more fires burn

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Forest Service may let more fires burn
By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press | March 8, 2013 | Updated: March 8, 2013 2:57am

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After coming in $400 million over budget following last year's busy fire season, the Forest Service is altering its approach and may let more fires burn instead of attacking every one.

The move, quietly made in a letter late last month by Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, brings the agency more in line with the National Parks Service and back to what it had done until last year. It also answers critics who said the agency wasted money and endangered firefighters by battling fires in remote areas that posed little or no danger to property or critical habitat.

Tidwell played down the change, saying it's simply an "evolution of the science and the expertise" that has led to more emphasis on pre-fire planning and managed burns, which involve purposely setting fires to eliminate dead trees and other fuels that could help a wildfire quickly spread.

"We have to be able to structure (fire management) this way to help all of us," Tidwell told The Associated Press. "So that we're thinking about the right things when we make these decisions."


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Forest-Service-may-let-more-fires-burn-4338447.php

[lunatica]

1. A global warming study at UC Berkeley

said that although the Mediterranean type of climate will continue along the narrow California coastal regions that the forests would die and end up burning and will not replace themselves.