WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 092910

Riverside County officials are considering stepping in to help pay more for expansion of the Hemet-Ryan Air Attack Base after California's budget shortfalls have eliminated the $25 million CAL FIRE was going to sink into the project (1); followed by an Op-Ed piece which explores San Diego's edge in technology for dealing with wildfires (2). CAL FIRE reported that a five-acre wildfire in Andrew Molera State Park, near Big Sur, had been contained (3); but as wildfire conditions improve in Northern California, Shasta-Trinity National Forest is lifting fire restrictions (4). An environmental group, League of Wilderness Defenders - Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, is battling US Forest Service in Oregon over what they perceive to be excessive logging in the name of wildfire prevention (5). Burn permits are being made available to residents of Arizona's Pinal County as wildfire conditions in that area improve (6); while Arizona and New Mexico will split $7 million in federal forest funds between them (7); but in the meantime, residents of Santa Fe, New Mexico, are being advised that controlled burns in the nearby Santa Fe National Forest will be making their air a bit smoky for a while (8). A controlled burn in Northwest Colorado was pushed past its control lines when the wind came up yesterday (9). At $217 million, the Fourmile Fire has proven to be four times as costly as the previous record holder for Colorado's most destructive wildfire (10); while the state plans to spend nearly $1 million to preserve the quality of drinking water in areas impacted by recent wildfires (11); even as a new wildfire has been reported in Roosevelt National Park near Loveland (12). Authorities in Utah are fretting over the possibility that FEMA may not pay the $5 million price tag for battling the Machine Gun Fire (13); and a 50-acre wildfire near Lincoln, Montana, is being battled by firefighters (14). Prescribed burns are being conducted in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest (15); but the 3,200-acre Antelope Fire jumped a fire line established along the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park (16). South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression has been allowed to use a state-owned King Air as an air-attack platform (17); while a public service message from the Nature Conservancy provided guidelines for residents of Kansas City, Missouri, regarding fires in rural areas (18). In Michigan, the Detroit City Council has rescheduled the hearing on a catastrophic wildfire that destroyed 71 homes (19); but every county in Alabama remains under a fire alert after 535 wildfires have burned nearly 6,000 acres in that state (20). An article from Cornell University in New York state looks back at the massive wildfires that scorched Russia this past summer (21); but the cost of restoring two fire lookout towers in that state is being debated (22). Maryland Forest Service was thankful for rainfall on Allegheny Mountain, but a number of hotspots are still being observed (23). Scientists once again debate whether wildfires are a symptom of climate change or not in the next article (24). A wildfire is burning in Bolivia's Rio Blanco y Negro Nature Preserve (25). A debate over the effectiveness of Australia's Emergency Systems disaster alert program is raging in the federal government at the moment (26); while rangers in Victoria's Kinglake National Park are trying to find out how badly the Black Saturday bushfires affected the endangered brush-tailed phascogale (27). Fire authorities in New South Wales were conducting controlled burns in the Coocumbac Island Nature Reserve (28); one of a series of prescribed burns intended to reduce the bushfire danger across the state (29). Opposition politicians in Western Australia are urging that FESA's recommendations following the Toodyay bushfire inquiry be implemented immediately (30); this coming at a time when seventeen changes, including adjustments to the firefighting chain of command, have been recommended in an independent report on the Goldfields Fire of 2007 (31). And finally, wildfires often impact wildlife, but Russian scientists have determined that wildfires in Siberia may have altered the habits of the legendary Abominable Snowman!

(1) Riverside County: Exploring ways to fund Hemet-Ryan expansion

(2) San Diego’s Wildfire Experience Provides an Edge in Disaster-Tracking Tech

(3) CAL FIRE: Vegetation fire near Big Sur

(4) Shasta-Trinity National Forest lifts fire restrictions

(5) 'Opposite Day' at the Forest Service

(6) Burn permits available for low wildfire risk areas

(7) Federal forest funds go to NM, Arizona

(8) Smoke is filling Santa Fe NM

(9) Prescribed Moffat County burn pushes past boundary

(10) Insured Losses From Wildfire Near Boulder, Colo. Total $217 Million

(11) Colorado providing grants to protect drinking water from Fourmile Fire runoff

(12) New wildfire near Loveland sends up smoke

(13) FEMA may not provide funds for Herriman fire

(14) Crews Continue to Battle 50-Acre Wildfire Near Lincoln

(15) Prescribed burning begins: Fire crews begin projects in Jennings Creek, Bear Creek areas

(16) Antelope fire jumps river in Yellowstone

(17) State's King-Air aircraft can help on fires

(18) Do your part to prevent a fire in the wilderness

(19) City Council reschedules public hearing on fires

(20) Statewide Fire Alert Remains in Effect

(21) Wildfires, Record Temperatures Scorch Russian Landscape

(22) Group: DEC’s cost to restore two fire towers is inflated

(23) Firefighting efforts aided by rainfall

(24) Wildfires: A Symptom of Climate Change

(25) Forest fire out of control in Bolivia

(26) Emergency systems neglect regional areas: MP

(27) Bushfire fear for endangered Kinglake marsupial

(28) Smoke haze across Taree area from hazard burning

(29) Hazard reduction burns ahead of fire season

(30) Armadale a bushfire risk: Quirk

(31) Fatal bushfire report recommends changes

(32) This summer's wildfires forced yetis change habitats, Russian researchers