WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 121213

Wildfire NOTD subscriber Andrew Madsen, Public Affairs Officer at Southern California's Los Padres National Forest, announced that fire restrictions have been reduced due to recent rainfall (1). As the winter meeting of the Western Governors' Association got underway in Las Vegas, Nevada, the talk turned to wildfires (2); where Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool GIS maps provided an overview of the area affected (3). Differences in the timeline of events during Colorado's Black Forest Fire have cropped up in the stories being told by the Black Forest Fire Board and the El Paso County Sheriff (4); the Arkansas Basin Roundtable discussing how to prevent damage to watershed at its Wednesday meeting (5); but one craftsman is finding creative ways to incorporate burned trees into rebuilt homes (6). Seasonal wildland firefighting jobs for 2014 are now being offered by the Bureau of Land Management in Idaho (7); while a Gilmer, Texas, family which lost their house in a 2011 wildfire is asking for financial aid to complete rebuilding of their new home (8). Wildfire NOTD subscriber Chuck Bushey, Past President of the Montana-based International Association of Wildland Fire, sent along the first in a series of articles on the issue of wildfires (9); several Republican politicians banding together in Washington, DC, to amend Obamacare requirements that could adversely impact volunteer fire departments that often shoulder the burden of wildfire fighting in rural parts of the US (10). A total of 87 ha of Armenia's forests went up in smoke this year, adding to a 10-year total of 2,500 ha (11); and in India's state of Himachal Pradesh, a deliberately-set wildfire has destroyed hundreds of trees in the Kullu Valley (12). In New South Wales, Australia, Commonwealth Bank made a $100,000 donation to the Rural Fire Service and Habitat for Humanity to help with post-bushfire reconstruction in the Blue Mountains (13); and although there has been enthusiasm over the arrival of koala bears in parts of Sydney due to recent bushfires, the reaction to an influx of snakes in Newcastle displaced by flooding in bushfire-ravaged areas has been quite different (14); the next article taking a closer look at the University of Western Australia's $5.6 million Aurora program, which aims to predict bushfire behavior to allow timely warnings (15). And finally, St. Bernards, which have long been known as rescue animals, have a new mission: comforting firefighters!

(1) Fire Restrictions Lowered for Los Padres National Forest

(2) Governors Gather in Vegas to Talk Land Use, Fires

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