Agoura Fire Plan Goes Up in Yellowstone’s Smoke

Disastrous fires in Yellowstone National Park have prompted cancellation of controlled burns nationwide, including one scheduled today that would have completed a barrier protecting part of Agoura Hills from wildfires, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said Wednesday.

The department received official notification from the National Park Service this week that the burn--scheduled on 150 acres of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area--is canceled, said Fire Capt. Scott Franklin, the department’s vegetation management officer.

The burn was intended to form the second half of a firebreak in Cheeseboro Canyon, where the Fire Department burned 150 acres July 13. The burns destroy dead branches and brush that could add intensity to potential wildfires driven by Santa Ana winds, Franklin said.

‘Going the Wrong Direction’

“Because of the problem they’ve had at Yellowstone, I think they’re going in the wrong direction when they say you can’t do any more fire management anywhere else in the U.S. parks,” Franklin said. “It’s a political decision . . . it’s just an overreaction.”

After the Yellowstone fires began raging out of control this summer, the Park Service on July 22 suspended its “let burn” fire-management policy amid charges by area residents that the agency had waited too long to begin fighting the fires. It was confirmed last week that the policy--which discourages human intervention in wilderness fires not caused by man--is suspended for the remainder of 1988 and possibly longer.

Spokesman George Berklacy said the Park Service indefinitely suspended controlled burns on federal parkland nationwide the same time it suspended the “let burn” policy.

The suspensions are “very much a temporary measure as a result of the situation in Yellowstone,” Berklacy said.

Firefighters have contained the Yellowstone fires, which consumed about 1.3 million acres, including 750,000 acres of the 2.2-million-acre national park, Berklacy said.

Diseased Growth

Dead branches and dry grass accumulate naturally in such park areas as Cheeseboro Canyon, Franklin said. But the fire danger has been compounded by die-back, a phenomenon believed to have killed about half the wild brush in the county, he said.

When grasslands and forests have large amounts of combustible brush and other material, fires can spread faster and burn with more intensity, Franklin said.

Robert Plantrich, forester for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, expressed disappointment that the controlled burn in Cheeseboro Canyon was canceled. “Part of our strategy was to create an important firebreak,” he said.

The controlled burns were to give a rural section of Agoura Hills known as Old Agoura added protection from wind-driven fires from Las Virgenes Canyon to the northeast, Plantrich said. Old Agoura is adjacent to Cheeseboro Canyon.

Agoura Hills aggressively encourages citizens to clear brush around their homes, and residents are well aware of the danger of fire from surrounding grassland, City Manager David N. Carmany said. “We’ll manage,” he said.

Other Burns Affected

County plans for three similar controlled burns next year covering 1,000 acres in the Zuma Canyon and Zuma Ridge areas also have been put on hold because of the Park Service decision, Franklin said. The Cheeseboro Canyon burn had been planned for about a year, he added.