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About Wescolite (Dillon, Mont) 1949-2009 | View This Issue
Wescolite (Dillon, Mont), 07 Oct. 2001, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/Wescolite/2001-10-07/ed-1/seq-12/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
Western Wildfires (cont from pg. 10) lush, I regarded that fire suppression response as overkill. It just didn't seem necessary at all. See Western Wildfires, p.12 Lesson # 2 - There has been a zero tolerance policy toward wildfire for most of this century. And as firefighting technology has improved, our fire suppression record has been tremendous. Even during this year, the summer of 2000, when drought conditions have made forests extremely flammable, and the number of fire starts in Montana have totaled over 3000 ....... only about 27 of those fires escaped suppression and continued to bum out of control. That means that even in this most extreme of years, the success rate in putting out fires has been over 99%. Imagine how effec tive we must have been in average years, if we have been 99% successful in snuffing out fires this year. A few weeks ago Governor Marc Racicot spoke on this campus and described the firefighting effort as being very similar to a military operation, basically it's an all-out war against the enemy, FIRE. At a cost of around 2 million dollars per day in Montana alone, the estimated cost of fighting fires this year throughout the West is said to be approaching about a billion dollars. Most of that money is spent trying to fight the relatively few fires that got away from the initial suppression efforts. Those large, unpredictable fires are often too ’ dangerous to approach closely, and they basi cally go wherever they are pushed by the winds. Nearly everyone seems to agree that those fires are not likely to go out until \Mother Nature\ douses them with enough rain or snow in the coming weeks. So, considering the fact that trying to fight those large fires is basically fruitless, one has to question the wisdom of (DVIWG <D<AYS T a ti Campus visit a m f U L tk Trepare to wetcome the potentiaC students!! throwing all that money and personnel into an unwinnable situation. Are the monetary costs and the risks to human lives really worth it? In my view the answer is NO! Of course, most folks whose ranches and summer homes are at risk would probably say YES! The bottom line? We, as a society, have been taught to be intolerant to wildfire. Most folks believe the lessons they learned in the movie \Bambi\and from \Smokey the Bear\ that forest fires are an evil enemy. The Forest Service and most other land management agencies have mainly adhered a policy of total fire suppression, in order to avoid public criticism (and lawsuits) claiming that they let a small stoppable fire turn into a destructive wildfire. As a society, we have allowed our neighbors the freedom to build their ranches, summer homes and even towns in the midst of forests and/or in uncleared sagebrush lands, which has made them extremely vulnerable to damage by wildfire. And, from the broader ecological perspective, we have essentially eliminated the cycle of natural wildfires that used to periodically clear our forests of deadfall and small understory trees. Research has shown that, prior to our anti-fire management policies during the past century, forest and range fires occurred at frequent intervals (20-30 years) and were mostly low intensity ground fires, rather than stand replacing crown fires which can kill every tree. These more intense, so called \catastrophic\ fires are now apparently becoming much more common, due to the fact that we have, for so long, stopped the lower intensity fires, thus allowing the buildup of unbumed fuels in our forests. The inescapable conclusion is that as a society, our unwillingness to learn to live with and tolerate natural fire as part of our landscape has made us even more vulnerable to the negative social impacts of wildfire, rather than safer from wildfire. We can follow the course of action proposed by Governor Racicot, Senator Bums and others, which would throw millions I can’t remember when it all began, except one day, There I was alone, ' Naked- In a field. The wheat hid my privacy, But as I became braver I raised my arms And raised my hands above my head, As if to make a circle around the sun. I’m not even a shadow in this strange planet But someday my death shall bum a hole in the sun. The air was autumn. And it ruffled my auburn hair As it tickled the wheat against my spine. I began to feel this aching need to lie down in the dust. I wanted to stretch my hide across Mother. I wanted to make love to something I couldn’t see, Only feel When my breast rose heavily In The Important Date Below!!! October 26,2000 On that date, the next edition of the Wescolite wil be distributed to strategic locations across the campus, for your reading pleasure. Be sure to keep an eye peeled so that you don’t miss out on what’s going on at WMC. of taxpayer dollars at this human-created problem by trying to initiate even more kinds of technological fixes, such as massive forest thinningcleariiig projects. But these costly projects could never be massive enough to create fireproof forests, and, in the longrun, they would be as counterproductive and costly as the firefighting approach itself. Their strategy ignores the lessons we should have learned from the fires of ‘88 and the fires of this year... that managed forests are not fireproof forests and that waging a war against wildfires is both costly and counterproductive. Alternatively, we could use the more ecologically and economically reasonable approach of allowing the cycle of wildfires to return to our forest and range ecosystems. We would simply need to apply good sense in locating our residences in places that are out of harm’s way and/or are landscaped appropriately to protect them from wildfire. Yes, there would be smoky skies nearly every summer, and yes, for the sake of human safety, there would be short-term cloures of the areas wehre the fires are burning. But, in the long rim, our forests would become far more healthy environments for both wildlife and humans to enjoy. And, astaxpayers, we would finally stop seeing millions of our tax dollars poured down the bottomless pit of fire suppression. ***The opinions expressed in this column are those o f the writher and do not necessarily reflect the opinions o f Western Montana College o f the University o f Montana. ---- SEE ------------------------------------ \ Dark Earth. I had no need for company. I was at peace. I didn’t even have a name, Nor- Could I- Remember the name I once hd- It all seemed so far away- Was all that “Mankind” created vanishing from from my memory? The past and the future could claim me no more. The present was only in command. And its calm whisper Gave Me Assurance That today Is beginning With all That . Matters. by C.T. Anderson
