WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 111412

A 530-acre wildfire that began as a controlled burn in San Luis Obispo County, California's, Montaña de Oro State Park is now 30% contained (1); while US Forest Service will continue controlled burns along the shores of Lake Tahoe (2). The next article takes a closer look at Oregon's Project Wildfire, which aims to take a whole community approach to wildfire preparation and evacuations (3); but after being pounded by wildfires during the summer, Kittitas County, Washington, is concerned about flooding in the months to come (4). In Nevada, Minden Air Corp is busily converting a BAe146 commercial aircraft into an air-tanker (5). A Mesa, Arizona, man faces $5,000 in fines and some jail time for starting an 18,000-acre wildfire in the Tonto National Forest (6); while an article from Northern Arizona University looks at the impact of crown fires on the Carbon World Bank (7). Our next article takes a look at North Carolina's Grandfather Restoration Project, which intends to restore 40,000 acres of the Pisgah National Forest over the next 10 years (8). In Australia, the federal government is investing $60 million in an upgrade to Victoria's bushfire emergency notification system (9); where Country Fire Authority's FireReady smartphone app has already been downloaded 70,000 times since its unveiling last year (10); while 13 landowners have been approached by the state government to sell back bushfire-prone property in Nillumbik (11). Forest NSW is reminding residents of New South Wales to prevent accidental fires that could damage plantations which take 30 years to re-grow (12). Residents of South Australia's Eyre Peninsula who just survived an 18,000-hectare bushfire are coming to grips with their losses (13); while a koala bear that was severely burned in that bushfire is receiving state-of-the-art medical treatment at the Australian Marine Wildlife Research and Rescue Organisation's rehabilitation centre (14). Fire crews in Western Australia plan to let lightning-sparked bushfires near the Shire of Wiluna burn themselves out (15); but some people impacted by bushfires that blazed through Toodyay, Kelmscott and Margaret River since 2007 feel abandoned by the government (16). Funding cuts have left Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service with only two thirds of their needed funding, hampering their ability to battle bushfires (17). And finally, a cautionary tale for heli-tanker pilots comes to us from New South Wales' Rural Fire Service: make sure that water source you're dipping into isn't a sewage pond!

(1) Air quality still unhealthy, officials say

(2) Prescribed fire operations on Tahoe's north shore

(3) Project Wildfire gains national recognition

(4) Kittitas County's failing flood district raises concerns

(5) Minden Air converting passenger plane into firefighting air tanker

(6) Mesa man set to change plea in wildfire case

(7) Earth Notes: The Crown Fire - Carbon Connection

(8) Public-private partnership helps restores hundreds of acres in Grandfather Ranger District

(9) Government phones in warning text alerts for bushfires and disasters

(10) Smartphone apps take on bushfires

(11) HAVE YOUR SAY: Landowners sell bushfire-affected properties to state

(12) Forest users urged to respect fire 'bans'

(13) Residents face reality of bushfire damage

(14) Bushfire koala victims under AMWRRO's around-the-clock care

(15) Shire of Wiluna bushfires will 'burn themselves out'

(16) 'Forgotten' bushfire victims still in limbo

(17) Parks funding gap sparks bushfire fears

(18) Firefighters hit with sewage while fighting fire