WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 012310

First up in wildfire news today, Californians near San Diego's Miramar Air Station will be seeing smoke and flames tonight, as the Marines hone their wildfire-fighting skills(1). Never mind the wildfire threat from millions of beetle-killed trees in Colorado, one USFS Regional Incident Commander is more worried about the danger from falling trees (2) ; but mimicking the old saying about taking the lemons in life and making lemonade, residents of Wyoming are exploring plans for conversion of beetle-killed trees in Medicine Bow National Forest into biomass energy (3). A museum in Montana is commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of a 3 million acre wildfire that killed 85 people in Montana and Idaho (4); while the area around South Dakota's Mount Rushmore will be subjected to controlled burns ahead of fire season (5). The USFS will likely torch 5,700 acres of land on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee as part of a controlled burn program (6); even as authorities in Virginia are reminding residents of the danger of outdoor burning as wildfire season approaches (7). A Canadian community in British Columbia is appealing to the provincial government for funds to implement a wildfire protection plan (8). Having lost thousands of acres to wildfires, Colombia is blaming an El Nino effect for the unusually dry conditions that made the wildfires possible in that tropical South American country (9); while Chile has reported over 60,000 acres lost to the same phenomenon (10). A bank in Western Australia has gone beyond the usual bushfire donation, agreeing to delay loan paybacks by customers impacted by the recent bushfires (11); but FESA is advising visitors to that state about the danger from bushfires, along with steps to take if one occurs (12). Now that the bushfire in Victoria's Grampians National Park has been contained, the owners of a giant koala sculpture can finally breath easy (13). And finally, perhaps in a sign of the hard economic times, Hungarian volunteer firefighters in the town of Kaposvar returned from battling a blaze only to find their cars ticketed, even though they had parking permits on their windshields - and the traffic authorities are unwilling to dismiss their fines!

(1) Controlled burns set for Miramar air station

(2) Falling Trees New Threat From Beetle Kill

(3) Group puts Medicine Bow Forest wood to work

(4) Fort Missoula museum pulls from collections for exhaustive picture of tragic 1910 blaze

(5) Mount Rushmore to conduct prescribed burn

(6) Forest Service exploring controlled fire in LBL

(7) Restriction dates set as fire season approaches

(8) Delta seeks funding for wildfire protection plan

(9) Colombia Wildfires Have Already Destroyed Vast Areas This Year

(10) Forest fires devastate more than 30,000 hectares in Chile

(11) ME Bank to Defer Loan Payments for Three Months for WA Bushfire Customers

(12) Fire warning for tourists in WA

(13) 'Sam' the koala statue escapes bushfire

(14) Hungarian firefighters fined for parking violations