WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 020110

In the second installment of a five-part series on wildfires, the impact of computers on wildfire prediction and management is examined as Wildfire News Of The Day gets underway (1). USDA Secretary Vilsack touted the Recovery Act's contribution to reducing the threat of wildfires through thinning projects in Arizona, which also create more jobs for unemployed Americans (2); and one community in Colorado is providing sage advice to residents about preparing for wildfire season (3). A wildfire that raged through Georgia's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge three years ago has opened up an opportunity for foresters to return that area to its original inhabitants: longleaf pines (4). The Jewish community residing in Athens, Greece, helped replant areas around the capital burned in wildfires (5); while fire officials in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh are raising residents' awareness of the wildfire danger there this week (6). Heading Down Under, a couple of bushfires burning in southern Tasmania are giving firefighters a workout, but not threatening property at this time (7). Over 10,000 people have attended Fire Ready Victoria meetings since last July, helping to bolster public awareness of bushfire preparedness in that state (8); but arson investigators are labeling a bushfire in Victoria's Dandenongs Ranges as suspicious (9); even as Marysville prepares to observe the first anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires this coming weekend (10). The Royal Bushfire Commission has been told that neither the government nor the fire authorities were prepared for the Black Saturday bushfires and also faulted a utility company for a powerline failure that killed many people in the resultant bushfire (11); but polls reflect voter satisfaction with the government's improvements to bushfire issues one year on (12); even as at least one member of Country Fire Authority suggests that power lines in high-risk areas be shut off on Red Flag days (13). The Victorian government comments on progress in rebuilding areas hit by the Black Saturday bushfires one year later (14); but the plight of vacation homeowners, people not eligible for government money to rebuild, is underscored by the next article (15). A new government study, Behaviour and intentions of households in high bushfire risk areas, polled over 400 households in 52 high-risk townships in Victoria to sample attitudes on bushfire risk (the full report can be read at the following weblink) (16); but Country Fire Authority officials are concerned about the attitude of Victorians who refuse to evacuate early during a bushfire (17). And finally, we take a look at cork trees, which are fire resistant, prompting some in Victoria to call for replacement of flammable Eucalyptus groves with cork plantations, no doubt music to the ears of Australian vintners!

(1) Smokey Bear Now Studies Computer Science

(2) USDA Promotes Recovery Act Job Creation Efforts In Arizona

(3) Mountain View offers safety tips

(4) Okefenokee wildfires clear the way for a new habitat

(5) Grecian Jews Reforest Athens Area Claimed by Fire

(6) 'Need to keep forests safe from fire'

(7) Remote bushfires not threatening homes

(8) Maintain home protection

(9) Emerald bushfire ‘suspicious’

(10) Bushfire-hit town prepares for 'Black Saturday' anniversary

(11) Vic govt, CFA 'not ready' for bushfires

(12) Voters back state on bushfire safety effort

(13) Switch off risky power poles in bad fire weather: firefighter

(14) Rebuilding Continues In Gippsland One Year After 2009 Bushfires

(15) Remember the bushfires' other victims

(16) Behaviour and intentions of households in high bushfire risk areas

(17) Stay-at-home defiance alarms fire authorities

(18) Portuguese cork gets wings as stoppers war rages on