Western Perspective: For shifting fire policy to be successful, it must
include a holistic view of wildfire written by Will Boyd, Education Director,
Friends of the Clearwater Scott Russell, resource adviser for the Rattlesnake
Fire and Nez Perce Forest fish biologist, met me at the Elk City Ranger
Station late morning August 16. I had followed a Forest Service pickup with
two pallets of fire wrap down the grade from smoky Grangeville, Idaho. The
air was clear on the South Fork, safe from the wind blown smoke of the Poe
Cabin fire south of White Bird and the short-lived Little Canyon fire which
flared up and was contained by resourceful farmers. I followed his dust
through town, up and over the hill, and down the Red River Road. We drove
through the heart of Bennett timber lands. Cut three to four years ago, these
damaged lodgepole and subalpine fir forests contrasted starkly with the
surrounding Forest land. District Ranger Terry Nevius met us at Red River
Ranger Station, the Incident Command Post for this fire. He was joined by IMT
(Incident Management Team) Information Officer Jennifer Costich, and Incident
Commander Bill Cowin. Russell is the point man for this fire. On the
Rattlesnake Fire since ignition, and familiar with this type of operation, he
has been on the Forest for fifteen years. Jennifer and Bill were part of IMT
number three. Except for the commander IMTs are replaced every two weeks to
ensure that fresh and rested legs are always present, protecting both fire
team personnel and ensuring that high quality work continue through an entire
fire incident. While waiting to leave for Dixie, I pored over several crisp
new multilayer maps. The day's recently updated activity map for the "Snake",
sparked July 13 in the grassy Salmon River breaks, showed continued movement
north and west well into the Gospel Hump Wilderness and Jumbo Mining District
and also northeast along the Salmon River corridor within the Frank Church
Wilderness. Daily updated maps are the norm; many times appearing thanks to
nightly aerial surveys utilizing infrared technology. Thus far the "Snake"
had avoided private property. This was not a WFU (wildland fire unit with a
let burn policy). Though well within two wilderness areas and the Wild &
Scenic Salmon, fire officials considered this blaze important to suppress,
though to date, well over one month later, containment is at 10%. Until
recently it was nil. This fire had been labeled a suppression fire (red) on
the zone fire maps because of its proximity to Dixie, Idaho. This "town" lies
in the heart of wild central Idaho; an outpost surrounded by vast lodgepole
pine forests and inventoried roadless areas on all sides. Year round
residents of Dixie number about twenty-five. Flashback. Wildland firefighting
began on a scorching August day in 1886. Captain Moses Harris of the First
Cavalry, recently appointed by General Philip Sheridan as the new
superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, ordered his men to attack a
wildfire near Mammoth Hot Springs. From that time on, fire has been battled
at an incredible cost to human life (24 firefighters in 2006), ecological
integrity (erosion & compaction of already thin & unstable soils,
fragmentation of intact forest lands), and our pocketbooks (45% Forest
Service budgets in 2006). Flash forward. Something different was happening
here, however. Few fire lines had been dug. (At press time bulldozers had dug
lines on Forest land near the Whitewater Ranch. Up until this time hand lines
were the norm; dug on the north and south ends of Dixie, and several others
at spot fires and in proximity to Orogrande, Concord, and Whitewater Ranch.)
Instead of taking this fire head on, nearly always a lose-lose scenario, the
Forest had put almost all of its efforts and resources into protection of
private property. The Rattlesnake Fire had cost $12 million to date with a
$17 million dollar ceiling according to Nez Perce Forest Supervisor Jane
Cottrell. According to her calculations this fire was costing $127/acre
compared to an average of $138/acre for suppression fires on the Forest. The
Bridge and Boundary fires, much smaller and to the north were being
approached similarly. To date the Bridge Fire was costing about $13/acre.
Compare this to the disastrous Slims Fire suppression action, which occurred
in Meadow Creek Roadless Area in 2003. The fire, only 1700 acres and
threatening a designated campground, was suppressed at a cost of $22 million
dollars in only a several day period. Meadow Creek, proposed in part for
wilderness designation by the Nez Perce Forest, is a geologically unique area
and one important for wildlife, rare resident and migratory fish, and
significant stands of mid-elevation old growth. It lies adjacent to the
Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to the east, a place where fires have been
allowed to burn for the past thirty years. Cottrell was quick to acknowledge
the Slims fire suppression as a mistake. “The biggest difference now,”
she said, “before we do full confinement, containment, and control, we
assess values at risk and use indirect tactics. Instead of trying to run out
and put a dozer line in, we think about what we can do to protect the values
at risk.” Values at risk is one of many new guiding phrases that fall under
Adaptive Management Response (AMR), a relatively new system of decision
making used by the IMTs. With this more flexible approach, the Forest Service
may finally have the opportunity to change some of the misconceptions
surrounding fire and limit the damage caused by Smokey Bear and an aging fire
policy designed by the U.S. Army. Says Cottrell of AMR, “Lots will say this
system endangers communities or makes bigger fires. The prime example people
need to see is the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, with thirty years of wild
fire use.” What Cottrell refers to is somewhat unique to this pocket of the
West. The Forests in this region have long had the most common sense fire
policy in the nation. A higher percentage of fires have been allowed to burn
in this part of Idaho and in parts of Western Montana than anywhere else in
the nation, in large part because of the presence of large designated
wilderness areas. “Because wildfire has been allowed to return, the last
ten years have been smaller fires,” she continued. “I'll bet my
reputation that any fire that starts in the lower Gospel Hump next year will
not be this big.” Russell mirrors Cottrell's optimism. "This fire is the
perfect marriage between resource protection and rehabilitation and property
protection." The decisions made by the IMTs on this fire demonstrate a
priority shift. In a world of limited resources, human health and safety and
structure protection are more important than preventing a fire from
"destroying the forest." In fact, much to the chagrin of the Forest Service,
the Rattlesnake fire has already accomplished the objectives of the Crooked
Cove Fuel Reduction project, burning nearly the entire project area, which
was scheduled to occur in 2008. According to Gary Macfarlane, Ecosystem
Defense Director for Friends of the Clearwater, a public land advocacy group
based in North-central Idaho, “The Forest Service still has a long way to
go, both in bringing this fire-industrial complex under control financially,
and in acknowledging the limitations of defensible space during a wildland
fire event.” An often sited paper written by Forest Service researcher Jack
Cohen in 2001 reports that homes themselves can provide fuel for fire if they
are made of flammable material or exposed to burning vegetation. Cohen says
that “residential compatibility with wildland fire…can be more effective
at preventing wildland–urban fire disasters than the current approach of
emergency wildland–urban fire protection.” According to Cottrell,
“Property owners are going to have to take more responsibility. Some
communities aren't in fire protection districts. They are either going to
have to pay or take on more responsibility.” One resident of Orogrande,
northwest of Dixie, has already done just that. Roof-line sprinklers, a pump
house that draws from the creek, and eighteen in-ground sprinklers stand
between his property and future fires. Once the fire closes in enough to
drive him from his fire hose, he need only flip the pump switch, drive away
and hope for the best. This is far from the norm, however. With no tax base,
Dixie, Orogrande, and many other places will continue to rely on federally
funded fire protection. Most Dixie residents have gratefully accepted the
help. According to Cliff Ragdale, volunteer fire chief, "IMT folks have done
remarkable work to protect homes. Top notch work." He feels like 90% of
structures would survive a fire if it moved up Crooked Creek to the
unincorporated town. Last year's efforts ate up 47% of the Nez Perce Forest's
budget. And with what appears to be a more aggressive shift in efforts to
battle the “Snake”, the $17 million dollar ceiling set for the fire could
soon expand. According to Nevius, "its only going to get more expensive (to
fight fires)." He expects fire fighting costs will to exceed 50% of the
Forest's budget this year. The model provided by the Rattlesnake, now topping
100,000 acres, isn't perfect. Costs associated with protecting private
property will continue to escalate as more cabins and summer homes are built
in fire dependent ecosystems. Discussion over who pays for what will continue
until the first lightning strikes a ponderosa pine snag next summer.
According to Steven J. Pyne, a professor at Arizona State University and a
former wildland firefighter who fought fires for 15 years on the North Rim of
the Grand Canyon, the ecology of wildfire must be part of these discussions.
In his essay, “Thinking about the Biological Basis for Fire,” Pyne makes
the case for understanding fire as far more than a disturbance, much too
integral to be seen and treated as an independent force to be combated.
Wildfire must be studied before, during, and after its return to a specific
ridge line or draw. Fire ecologists and botanists must be allowed to enter
the fire-industrial complex currently occupied primarily by firefighters and
foresters. If we are to let wildfire continue to do its important work, which
will eventually reduce future opportunity for catastrophic fire and
accomplish many of the Forest’s costly management objectives we must
understand it as primarily ecological.
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