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OCTOBER 14 -- ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO:
The Bureau of Land Management manages nearly 13 million acres in New Mexico -- land that is valued by conservationists, outdoor recreationists, and ranchers alike. But much of the grasslands in the southwestern U.S. have been subject to long-term fire exclusion, causing these areas to be invaded by woody shrubs and undergoing other changes related to the altered fire regime. BLM staff in New Mexico are amending their fire management plan, and have adopted the explicit long-term goal of restoring the historical role of fire in the ecosystems they manage. For more information, check out the Fire Learning Network online; their monthly "Dispatch" newsletter is also online.
OCTOBER 05 -- BOISE, IDAHO:
The Joint Fire Science Program, a partnership of six federal wildland fire and research organizations, provides scientific information and support for fuel and fire management programs. The JFSP Project Highlights page at jfsp.nifc.gov/news is updated with highlights on research and other projects of interest to fuels and fire personnel.
SEPTEMBER 15 -- SMITH VALLEY, NEVADA:
A $20,000 wildland fire engine now belongs to the Smith Valley Volunteer Fire Department, thanks to the Bureau of Land Management. The 1992 International IHC Type IV engine can carry 750 gallons of water. The engine is part of $543,000 granted this year to rural and tribal firefighting operations under the BLM-Nevada Rural Fire Assistance Program, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Since the National Fire Plan was approved after the 2000 fire season, more than $3 million in equipment, supplies, training, and fire prevention materials has been provided to rural and tribal departments.
SEPTEMBER 13 -- NEBRASKA SANDHILLS:
What’s the best way to reintroduce large-scale, ecologically appropriate fire across privately owned, grazed, fragmented landscapes? That’s one of the central questions behind the Great Plains Fire Learning Network, which convened its first workshop in Sioux City, Iowa, last month. The network’s two anchor sites -- Loess Hills and Middle Niobrara/Nebraska Sandhills -- have made impressive strides tackling this problem during the 2½ years they’ve been involved in the national Fire Learning Network. For more information, check out the FLN online; their monthly "Dispatch" newsletter is also online.
AUGUST 31 -- LEAD, SOUTH DAKOTA:
The town of Lead is now an official "Firewise Community," and cabin owners in Spearfish Canyon hope to follow suit. Firewise Communities/USA is a project of the National Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Program, a consortium of agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of the Interior, and state agencies. The program involves communities and citizens in protecting themselves from wildfire, mainly by creating defensible space. Cabin-owners association members have a five-year plan in place to make their 22-mile-long community safer from wildfire. They've built a new $250,000 fire hall, and are assessing every cabin in the canyon for its vulnerability to wildfire. Assistant fire chief Jerome Harvey told the Rapid City Journal that Lead is the first entire municipality in the country to earn the Firewise label.
AUGUST 30 -- CENTRAL, UTAH:
Preparing for the possibility of wildland fire paid off this month for the small southwestern Utah town of Central. On August 12, lightning ignited the Cal Hollow Fire in piñon and juniper woodland northwest of town; the fire, pushed by afternoon winds, headed straight for the town. More than 100 homes were evacuated, but they were saved by a fuel break built as a cooperative effort by the people of Central and several state and federal agencies using National Fire Plan funds. utahfireinfo.gov has the story and photos online.
AUGUST 27 -- BEND, OREGON:
A coalition of central Oregon woodworkers, landowners, and representatives from state and federal agencies has found ways to turn junipers into profitable products while restoring the land and watersheds. The Bend Bulletin reported that seed money from a National Fire Plan grant last year got the project off the ground.
AUGUST 26 -- HAMILTON, MONTANA:
Chipping the slash left over after thinning private forests is often cleaner, easier, and safer than burning it, and two schools in Montana are now being heated by fueling boilers with chips. Schools in both Darby and Victor have new biomass boilers, according to a report by the Ravalli Republic; they were built with federal grant money through the Forest Service's Fuels for Schools program.
AUGUST 11 -- BOZEMAN, MONTANA:
The Gallatin National Forest will include about 4 million board feet of merchantable timber in a fuels reduction project planned for the Boulder River Drainage south of Big Timber, Montana. This is the first major fuel-reduction project on the Gallatin under the National Fire Plan, according to a report by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The project will reduce fuels in a timber-choked canyon that contains 250 homes and cabins, four church camps, and six U.S. Forest Service campgrounds.
AUGUST 02 -- KALISPELL, MONTANA:
Glacier National Park has improved defensible space in developed areas in the Park, thanks to NFP funding. Slash piles are neatly stacked near park headquarters, and a new fire management plan defines a program for creating defensible space in areas that could be threatened by wildfire. The Daily InterLake reported that thinning work was done by a Montana Conservation Corps crew; the fire plan is the first of its kind, because it was jointly developed with the Flathead National Forest.
JULY 01 -- SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH:
The Fire Learning Network is a cooperative project of The Nature Conservancy, the USDA Forest Service, and the Department of the Interior; it was created in 2002 to catalyze efforts to reduce hazardous fuels across the country. The FLN operates at both local and national levels to overcome barriers to ecologically appropriate fuels reduction and restoration projects. The FLN has entered a new phase that will emphasize regional networks; for more information, see their newsletter online.
NFP Awards - 2003 Selections Announced
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