Group Wants National Forest Fire Management Plans to Allow More Fire Contact: Bryan Bird, WildEarth Guardians (505) 501-4488 cell bbird@fguardians.org McCrystie Adams, Earthjustice (303) 623-9466 madams@earthjustice.org Tucson, AZ - The U.S. Forest Service is endangering forests and people with its policy of suppressing fire instead of allowing it to be a partner in forest management, a conservation group said today as it filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service in federal district court.
The suit demands that the Forest Service open its fire management plans to scientific review and consultation with federal wildlife agencies. Despite agency rhetoric acknowledging widespread scientific support for more managed fire, the fire plans still call for suppression even where fires are both ecologically and financially justified.
At issue are fire management plans that zone each national forest into areas for fire use or for total fire suppression and which require review under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit claims the fire management plans on the Apache-Sitgreaves, Tonto, Carson and Lincoln national forests, which cover 7.6 million acres, do not comply with environmental laws.
Forest Service fire fighting budgets have grown into the billions annually as ex-urban growth in the West’s fire-prone forests has led to a dramatic increase in fire-fighting. The majority of these taxpayer funds are used to protect private property in the “fire-plain,” areas of the western landscape that regularly and naturally experience fire. Not only is this expensive, but firefighters are routinely put in harm’s way.
The recent fires in California have ignited public discourse on the subject and some are calling for zoning to prevent development in fire-prone areas or calling on homeowners to take measures to “firewise” their properties. At the same time, scientists recognize the need for fire to resume its normal, cleansing role or risk unrelenting severe fire behavior.
In a letter last month to the Forest Service, more than a dozen scientists with expertise in biodiversity and fire recommend a scientific review of the agency’s fire management plans in Arizona and New Mexico. Because of changing climatic conditions and spiraling fire fighting costs, the scientists called for the new Southwestern Regional Forester to use the best available science and consultation with state and federal wildlife agencies.
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