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12
NATION
Friday. April 20, 2004
THE BATTALION
Fire threat grows in California
forest as trees continue to die
is
By Tim Molloy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
More dead wood increases fire risk
LAKE ARROWHEAD.
Calif. — Five suspected arson
fires this week rekindled fears
among residents and forest offi
cials already working feverishly
to avoid a repeat of last fall’s
deadly wildfires near this moun
tain resort.
They have good reason to
worry: The risk is even greater
this year.
Bark beetles preying on
drought-weakened pine trees
have devastated hundreds of
thousands of trees in the sprawl
ing San Bernardino National
Forest, killing nearly half the
trees in some areas.
Huge sections of the forest are
ripe for another catastrophic blaze.
"If these drought conditions
keep up. the entire forest is at
risk of dying off. and of course
this is a huge risk for fires,” said
Jack Blackwell, forester of the
Forest Service’s Pacific
Southwestern region.
Only a fraction of the dead
trees burned last fall when two
huge fires blackened more than
160,000 acres, destroyed about
I, UK) homes and killed six people.
Even more trees have died in
the past six months. The Forest
Service and others are furiously
cutting firebreaks and removing
as many dead trees as possible
before fire danger peaks in
September.
Much of the wood is worth
less because of the beetle infes
tation, and timber companies
run up heavy expenses shipping
it to the nearest mill more than
200 miles away.
The Forest Service is also
dousing insecticide on healthy
trees in camping areas and con
ducting prescribed burns like
one that went out of control at
Big Bear Lake last month and
turned into a 350-acre forest
fire. The miscue outraged
already nervous residents.
Forest dwellers were also
unnerved Monday w hen the sus
pected arson fires started west of
Lake Arrowhead. The blazes
were quickly contained, and no
arrests have been made.
The forest grew thick over
the last century as residents
favored the privacy and beauty
of being surrounded by firs,
cedars and pines. But drought in
recent years weakened the trees,
and warmer temperatures
allowed bark beetles to repro-
Forest officials are working to avoid a repeat of Southern Califomu;
rampant wildfires last fall. The risk is even greater now that bait
beetles have devastated hundreds of thousands i
of trees in the sprawling San Bernardino National ,
Forest, killing nearly half the trees in some areas.
San Bernardino
Riverside
JW)
Percentage of dead vegetation
Bernardino
National Fores
0%
50%
I
100%
As of Apnl 2003
A.
SOURCES ESRI: U S Forest Service: Mountain Area Safety Task Fore#
duce in greater numbers.
The new federal Healthy Forest
Restoration Act allows more tim
ber ami brush to be cleared w ith
less environmental scrutiny.
The Natural Resources
Conservation Service is distrib
uting $150 million to tribes,
local governments and others
for tree removal and other fire
prevention efforts in Southern
California. The Forest Service is
providing another $50 million.
In addition,, the Forest
Service has been given $40 mil
lion on top of its normal budget
for fire prevention in Southern
California.
Forest officials said the fund
ing is a good start but not
enough to remove all the dead
trees in the San Bernardino for
est. Nervous homeowners, uk>,
are rushing to join the effort.
Idyllwild resident Betty
Miller and her neighbors have
removed numerous trees in the
past few- months. But she has
had to wait for a contractor to
cut back an oak overhanging
their home.
"He's so busy, we’re on a
waiting list,” she said. “It’s
totally unbelievable the amount
of trees they’re cutting down.
Properties that you couldn’t
even see. now it’s thinned out.
Some properties have had all the
trees taken off.”
Some observers contend the
firebreaks aren’t the best way to
protect communities.
Tom Bonnicksen, a profe
at Texas A&M and visiiin;
scholar for the Forem
Foundation, a nonprofit group
supported by the timber inrta
try, said there should be on!)
strategic firebreaks and nwt
logging deeper in the forest
The area also needs a mi
that likely won’t be built uni
the Forest Service agrees to I
year logging contracts that pro
vide enough time for a compir
to recoup its investments
Bonnicksen said.
“Even if we remove the deal
trees, we still have a vervseri
ous problem.” he said. "Tk
entire forest is at risk whetheru
has dead trees in it or not."
Blackwell said the Fores!
Service favors shorter-term con
tracts because the forest
not be able to sustain logging
beyond that. Environmental
groups have also expressed con
cerns about giving the timber
industry a long-temi foothoW.
Before last year's fires. Big
Bear Lake resident Gotia
Wilson and her husband speni
months trying to get permission
to remove a hollowed-out tret
they feared would fall. But when
she called the fire department
about a dead tree a few weeks
ago. it was removed immediate
ly. along with several others.
‘The next w eek we were out
of town and a neighbor told
they were taking one down in a
snowstorm,” Wilson said. ‘
says they’re on top of thing!’
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P 1
NEWS IN BRIEF
U.S V Iraqi generals reach
tentative deal
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — U.S. Marines negoti
ated a “tentative" agreement Thursday to pull
back forces from Fallujah, a deal that would lift
a nearly monthlong siege and allow an Iraqi
force led by a former Saddam Hussein-era gen
eral to handle security. Fresh clashes broke out
despite news of a pending deal, and U.S. war
planes dropped bombs on insurgent targets.
Ten U.S. soldiers and a South African
were killed in attacks elsewhere, including eight
Americans who died when a bomb hit as
tried to clear explosives from a road south ol
Baghdad.
Negotiations were also taking place in
southern city of Najaf, where tribal leaders and
police discussed a proposal to end the U.S.
standoff and for followers of a radical Shiite
cleric to leave the city.
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Journi
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