*W.I.S.E. PRESS RELEASE
Roni, Thank you. Great. GNL is one of my favorite sites. Here is the Press Release - April 1, 2008:
"Wildland Fire Use" is a glorified name for Let It Burn" stated Mike Dubrasich, executive director of the Western Institute for Study of the Environment headquartered in Lebanon, OR.
"If the Rogue-Siskiyou adopts the WFU program, another Biscuit Fire is surely going to happen, possibly as soon as next summer."
Dubrasich's organization filed a 170 page complaint with the RR-SNF earlier this week.
The Biscuit Fire burned 500,000 acres of the then Siskiyou NF in 2002. It was the largest fire in recorded Oregon history and destroyed habitat for endangered species, including over 100,000 acres of prime spotted owl habitat (50 known nesting sites were destroyed).
The Rogue River and Siskiyou NF's were merged in 2004. The RR-SNF is preparing an Environmental Assessment to evaluate inclusion of WFU fires in their Fire Plan.
"We have suffered enough forest destruction from mega-sized forest fires," said Dubrasich.
"Allowing to wildfire to freely roam the landscape is a terribly destructive idea. Too much is at stake, including watersheds and wildlife habitat, as well as ranches, farms, homes, and entire communities that may lie in the path of Federal megafires."
"Their job should be rapid initial attack and full suppression of mid-season wildfires. If the USFS wants to do prescribed burning, it should be done on prepared ground, under controlled conditions, and at safe times of the year."
"One Biscuit Fire is plenty. We need stewardship and active management, not abandonment of our national forests to catastrophic incineration. Unchecked wildfires are wasteful, costly, dangerous, and sometimes deadly."
W.I.S.E has posted the complaint online at http://westinstenv.org
Mike Dubrasich
Western Institute for Study of the Environment
Lebanon, OR
http://westinstenv.org
PS - The Western Institute for Study of the Environment is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and a collaboration of environmental scientists, resource professional and practitioners, and the interested public.
Our mission is to further advancements in knowledge and environmental stewardship across a spectrum of related environmental disciplines and professions. We are ready, willing, and able to teach good stewardship and caring for the land.
W.I.S.E. provides a free, on-line set of post-graduate courses in environmental studies, currently fifty Topics in eight Colloquia, each containing book and article reviews, original papers, and essays. In addition, we present two Commentary sub-sites and a news clipping sub-site. Reviews and original articles are archived in our Library. See http://westinstenv.org