As wildfires ravage the U.S. West, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore has temporarily halted the practice of allowing some fires to burn naturally, and instead has directed firefighting resources to protect communities and infrastructure and be prioritized based on where “they have a high probability of success and they can operate safely and effectively.” Prescribed burns have also been shut down.
In a letter to Forest Service brass this week, Moore said the number of fires burning in the western U.S. combined with widespread drought and related shortages of firefighting personnel and equipment is placing unprecedented stain on the agency.
He said the strategy known as managing fires for resource benefit will be suspended.
The strategy is often suspended in bad fire years and this year qualifies. Moore noted there are more than 70,000 large fires burning in the West and about 22,000 people assigned to them.
Such conditions frequently mean that some fires in remote areas are monitored but otherwise allowed to burn — not as a strategy to improve habitat but because scarce firefighting personnel are concentrating on blazes threatening communities, lookouts and pack bridges. (Lewiston Tribune)
