Political Heat in Fire Season

If water bombers are diving through billowing smoke over California, it must be June and the start of the West’s wildfire season. The current weather and forest moisture levels indicate another awful fire summer. Already one major blaze has closed Interstate 80, forcing evacuations in a Northern California town.

Such fires, which consumed more than 11,000 square miles of trees across the nation last year, are awe-inspiring. Up close, they sound like huge engines, sucking in immense volumes of air and blasting flames out the front to heat vast stands of pines, exploding them like Roman candles. Think of a dozen hair dryers on “max” directed on the charcoal of one backyard barbecue, then expand that image to a 30-mile front across rugged terrain.

Here’s a fact: Nature wants fire to recycle its debris, to stimulate the grasses and brush, to launch the next generation of trees. Here’s another fact: For decades Smokey Bear and his government bosses told us the only good fire was a dead fire. This policy became even more imperative as human habitation, requiring fire protection, crept into undeveloped areas. As one result, millions of tons of natural debris have accumulated as kindling on an estimated 40 million acres of federal forestlands, just awaiting a cigarette or lightning to ignite new holocausts.

Typically, when fires rage, all attention focuses on fighting them. When fires die, so does public urgency to prevent them with a proactive, balanced policy of forest maintenance as opposed to benign neglect. Fortunately, in the smoky glare of last year’s fires and national politics, Congress enacted a National Fire Plan, a commitment to boost firefighting capabilities while reducing wildfire risks over time through controlled burns and, when wind and moisture conditions prohibit this, mechanical cleanups by forest crews.

Western governors who contributed to the Clinton administration plan know the frustrations of dealing with a sometimes imperious and inattentive federal government, the largest landlord in many states. Some environmentalists worry about how the Bush administration will implement the plan, since “fire management” can be code for simply giving logging companies access to more trees. But administration officials promise that their forest cleaning will involve more local consultations and coordination and will begin around threatened communities, not deep in the woods. National Park and Forest Service crews made a good start this spring.

The backlog of untended forests, however, is huge--some 55,000 square miles. No one needs Miss Cleo’s Tarot cards to foresee many more fires and water bombers at work before that backlog is significantly diminished. The real test in coming weeks and years will be whether yet another well-intentioned, long-term forest management plan can withstand the intense short-term heat of both the flames and the politics.