WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 020412

California's Sequoia National Forest will be one of the first of 155 nationwide to utilize the new National Forest System Planning Rule guidelines (1); and the Stanislaus and El Dorado National Forests will receive $730,000 as part of the federal Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program as well (2); but the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has called US Forest Service on the carpet over an expanded logging plan meant to provide better fire protection that could jeopardize the safety of fish in the Sierra Nevadas (3); meanwhile, residents of South Lake Tahoe have been warned that US Forest Service will be conducting controlled burns, making for smokey skies around the lake on Monday (4). Continued drought has prolonged the wildfire danger in Hidalgo County, Texas (5); and the US Air Force is working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Virginia to establish a national partnership aimed at managing wildfires (6). South Carolina Forestry Commission reported a 200-acre wildfire burning in Georgetown County (7). A wildfire mitigation specialist with Florida Division of Forestry pointed to cooperative efforts between state and local agencies in Hernando County that helped keep wildfires to a minimum in 2011 (8); while a five-acre wildfire is threatening dozens of homes in southern Florida (9). Canadian firefighters quickly knocked down a 10-acre wildfire burning outside of Calgary, Alberta (10); while wildfires that have already destroyed 16,000 acres in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park sprang back to life this past week (11). With extreme heat and dry conditions, officials at India's Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary are keeping an eye out for wildfires (12); conditions not helping the situation in Maharashtra, where Tendu leaf growers routinely set fire to forests to improve their crops, fires which can get out of control (13). A 53-hectare bushfire has been reported in Victoria's Grampians National Park (14); and an Op-Ed piece from a Country Fire Authority fire captain in the Fire Services Commissioner office reflects on how apathy to bushfire preparedness in the days leading up to Black Saturday ultimately impacted residents in the Dandenongs (15). As fire authorities in Australia warned of catastrophic bushfire conditions nationwide, Australian Pump Industries offered some help (16); while an investigative report has revealed that ultramarathon organizers in Western Australia knew that a bushfire had burned across the route hours before runners were trapped and badly burned last September (17). And finally, a firefighter on a medical call in Vacaville, California, discovered more than just a person in need: he found tools stolen from his home just a week before!

(1) Sequoia Forest among first to revise management plan

(2) USDA Selects Local Forest Restoration Proposal

(3) Court: Sierra logging plan left out impact on fish

(4) Forest Service resumes prescribed fire operations Monday

(5) Drought prolongs wildfire fears

(6) Air Force works with Fish and Wildlife Service to manage wildfires

(7) Forestry Commission responds to 200-acre wildfire in Georgetown County

(8) Prevention efforts limited 2011 wildfire damage in Hernando

(9) Wildfire Burning at US-1 and Card Sound Rd.

(10) Firefighters contain blaze in Calgary's northwest

(11) Forest fires re-ignite in Torres del Paine

(12) Watchers to be deployed to prevent wildfire

(13) The tendu leaf tussle

(14) Bushfire near Grampians National Park

(15) Only one person can save you from a bushfire: you

(16) Right pump vital for firefighting

(17) Race organisers warned about blaze

(18) Firefighter finds his own stolen goods during call