Monday, September 12, 1988/The Battalion/Page 11
; Residents fear homes
will burn in path of fires
Iellowstone national
PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Buffalo graze
nonchalantly near flaming trees, but
people are not reacting so coolly,
Snd residents once worried about
losing business to forest fires now
^ fear losing their homes.
Fire has destroyed buildings
around the Old Faithful geyser and
has threatened tourist towns on the
periphery of the country’s first na
tional park.
I The Montana towns of Cooke City
and Silver Gate outside the park’s
northeast entrance were evacuted
Ivvice last week.
W Jardine, Mont., near the northern
♦togc wate, was evacuated Saturday.
•h$ft I Firefighters saved Cooke City and
Silver Gate, but only by burning
^■housands of acres of forest to re-
^move fuel from the fire’s path.
The so-called backfires left the
once-picturesque towns flanked by
lack, skeletal trees.
“All we can do ... is herd it
around improvements and struc
tures — and don’t get anybody
killed,” said Bob Marlines, a struc
ture protection officer in Cooke
py-
I The 2.2 million-acre park, ded-
e jcated in 1N72, attracts more than 2
ffiiniillion visitors a year who marvel at
^Keyset's and hot springs, mountain
icenery and wild animals.
But tourists have stayed away in
roves this summer, and residents of
is expel
in lilt J
app:|
the m
lourism-dependent towns around
ihe park have complained bitterly
about the Park Service’s initial reluc
tance to respond to the fires.
“A guy gets really bitter when it
keeps dragging on and on and on,”
said David Klatt of Cooke City, who
spent spent three days in a motel
room outside of town last week, wait
ing out an evacuation.
In this summer of heat and
drought, Yellowstone is suffering
the worst fires in at least 200 years.
Forest fires have charred more
than 1 million acres in Yellowstone
and in the surrounding national for
ests and parks in Montana, Wyom
ing, and Idaho.
Each day, firefighters pray for
rain, but at park headquarters near
Mammoth Hot Springs this is the
third-driest summer on record.
Only 1.6 inches of rain fell at
Mammoth in June, July and August
— one-third the normal rainfall.
It was also the hottest summer on
record, with temperatures steaming
an average of 5 degrees above nor
mal, the weather service said.
Though other areas are hard hit,
Yellowstone is the top concern of
federal officials.
Of $250 million spent so far on
fighting fires, $78 million has gone
toward ef forts around the park, said
the Boise Interagency F’ire Center,
which coordinates firefighting in the
West.
Since 1972, park officials have al
lowed lightning-sparked fires to
burn.
“In the past 16 years, we had 140
fires that burned 33,000 acres,” said
John Varley, chief of park’s research
division.
“That averages about 240 acres
apiece before they went out on their
own.”
The fires help cleanse the pine
forest.
They clear deadwood, create new
meadows for forage, release nutri
ents for new plants and free the
pines’ seeds from their cones.
A cool, wet spring lulled park offi
cials into believing this summer
would be no different.
But the heat and low humidity left
the forest more parched than kiln-
dried lumber.
By July 15, when the Park Service
decided to start fighting the fires, it
was too late to stop them.
Fire crew boss John Borton has
battled forest fires in the West for 18
years, but the blaze he had been
fighting and sleeping near for 25
nights was something new.
“This is the edge of a fire that
goes back 50 miles,” he said. “It’s as
out of control as it was six weeks ago.
This is the most extreme fire behav
ior that just about any of us has ever
seen.”
Pope appeals to Zimbabwe
for human rights in Africa
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I HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) —
Pope John Paul II appealed Sunday
^»r reconciliation, racial harmony
■ml human rights in southern Af
rica, a region teeming with tribal, ra
js cialand political problems.
I John Paul's first full day on his
tour of the region was crammed with
^■vents, beginning with a meeting
^with the country’s seven Roman
^Katholic bishops and ending in a ses
sion with diplomats.
I In between, he celebrated Mass
^fcsting over two hours before more
than 200,000 peopV. He also met
■mh members of the laity and spoke
‘to 30,000 youths at a jammed sports
■tadium.
I His comments did not have the
ppolitical edge that they did Saturday,
■when he arrived here for 10 days of
■ravel through five Hack-ruled
^■ountries that are neighbors to
white-led South Africa.
I On Saturday, the pope talked of
■towerful political, economic and
■deological forces that endanger the
■lability of the region and who
Htirred up ethnic and tribal conflicts.
■ (Debbie look here . . JThough he
did not identify any country, he
clearly linked South Africa to his
comments when he said they were
“true for the grave issue of apart
heid,” Pretoria’s system of racial seg
regation.
In a symbolic gesture toward the
South African Catholic Church, the
pope invited the former archbishop
of Capetown to join his of ficial party
for the rest of his five-nation Africa
tour.
And in another development
aimed at creating what the Vatican
called “an atmosphere of concilia
tion,” a spokesman welcomed Mon
day’s meeting between South Afri
can President P.W. Botha and his
Mozambican counterpart, Joaquim
Chissano.
Chissano’s government alleges
that South Africa supports an 11-
year-old guerrilla insurgency in Mo
zambique.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Na
varro told reporters that Cardinal
Owen McCann, 71, archbishop eme
ritus of Capetown, would travel on
to Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland
and Mozambique on the pope’s
plane. McCann, who is white, is con
sidered a moderate.
Politics did not figure in John
Paul’s talks with diplomats. Instead,
he urged the officials to use their in
fluence to help Africa with its food
problems, refugees and devel
opment.
“The countries of Africa them
selves must be in charge of their own
development and historic destiny,”
he said. “Outside aid is urgently
needed, but it will only be helpful in
the king term if the essential force of
growth and development is truly Af
rica.”
The pope celebrated Mass from a
scaffold altar the size of a small
house at Barrowdale Park race
course. Tens of thousands of people
— many from neighboring South
Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Tanza
nia — sat on the ground in the in
field. Thousands more crowded the
VIP stands.
Parish choirs sang traditional
hymns to the accompaniment of ani
mal skin drums and trumpets made
from antelope horns.
Before the Mass began, three
women carrying on their heads clay
pots filled with water climbed the
steps of the towering altar and
kneeled before the pope. Water-
filled pots are traditional symbols of
welcome and hospitality in southern
Africa.
Anniversary of papal journey
marked with evening Mass
is ioij
,g work*
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Catholic church officials,
iho celebrated the one-year anniversary of the pope’s
dsit here with an evening mass Sunday night, agree
that changes following the event have been subtle.
Officials also had planned to bless a historical marker
at the plaza by the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic
Jhurch, but the plaque’s installation was postponed,
"he stop in San Antonio on Sept. 13-14, 1987, was the
fourth for Pope John Paul II on a 10-day, nine-city tour
of the United States.
The pope’s 22-hour stay was highlighted by the only
Sunday Mass on his tour and by speeches to Catholic
Charities USA in Municipal Auditorium, an address at
Ban Fernando Cathedral to men and women studying
to become priests and nuns, and a speech in Spanish to
tarishioners in Plaza Guadalupe.
Sister Charlene Wedelich, who w^as administrative as
sistant to the coordinator of the Texas papal visit, said
nany people, whether Catholic or not, remember
[vhere they were the day the pope visited San Antonio.
“It’s like when John F. Kennedy died,” she said. “I
can tell you exactly what I was doing.”
Church officials told the San Antonio Light that it is
difficult to gauge what kind of ef fect the visit had.
“I don’t think anyone in church can say they are in
church because of the papal visit,” said Father Greg
Nevlud, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.
“But I think it has increased evangelizing by not only
the priests, but by the laity.”
“I see a lot of good curiousity coming out of it,” said
Father Virgilio Elizondo, rector of San Fernando Ca
thedral.
He said about 300 adults recently completed a five-
week course that explained Catholic customs. The first
such class, offered a year ago, drew more than 500.
In terms of more visible work. Catholic leaders here
say they have stepped up efforts to help immigrants
and have begun to revamp programs to strengthen the-
family.
“We redoubled our efforts in the amnesty program,”
said Father David Garcia, a key figure in the papal-visit
planning who now is archdiocese director of vocations.
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