CONTROLLED BURNS SOUGHT TO STEM FIRES.Byline: David Ogul Riverside Press-Enterprise Wildland fires are likely to burn twice as many acres this year as in 1995, say state and federal officials who are calling for a sharp increase in controlled burns Prescribed or controlled burning (back burning) is a technique sometimes used in forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology and controlled fire can be a tool for foresters. to reduce fire danger in the future. California Department of Forestry Director Richard Wilson There have been many people named Richard Wilson, including:
More than 374,000 acres of wildland has burned in California through Wednesday, about 50 percent more than the 249,000 acres that burned all of last year. Over 11 days ending Wednesday, fires burned more than 250,000 acres statewide. Fire officials fear the worst is yet to come. The official fire season is only half over and the most damaging fires historically have occurred in September and October. ``We still have a long fire season ahead of us,'' Wilson said during a Thursday news conference at the CDF's Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, headquarters in Riverside. Contributing to this year's devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. fire season was a barrage of lightning strikes lightning strike n → huelga relámpago lightning strike n (Brit) → grève f surprise lightning strike n (BRIT - more than 24,000 recorded over four days earlier this month - and the lingering lin·ger v. lin·gered, lin·ger·ing, lin·gers v.intr. 1. To be slow in leaving, especially out of reluctance; tarry. See Synonyms at stay1. 2. effects of a statewide drought drought, abnormally long period of insufficient rainfall. Drought cannot be defined in terms of inches of rainfall or number of days without rain, since it is determined by such variable factors as the distribution in time and area of precipitation during and before that ended in 1993 and left 10 million dead trees standing in California. But perhaps the most significant factor contributing to this summer of wildfires, said Lynn Sprague, regional forester for the U.S. Forest service, is that years of aggressive firefighting 1. firefighting - What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. policies by local, state and federal agencies have left an abundance of fuel. In a sense, officials said Thursday, firefighters have become victims of their own success. ``We've done this excellent job of putting fires out for the past 100 years, so, in essence, we have 100 years worth of fuel'' on the ground, Sprague said. California is not alone. The U.S. Forest Service also is expanding its program of controlled burns nationwide. The moves are needed, officials say, to prevent a repeat of 1996. As of Wednesday, more than 82,000 fires had burned nearly 4.3 million acres throughout the country, mostly in the West. Developing a plan for more controlled burns will not be easy, Wilson and others said. Priorities among the agencies responsible for wildlands in the state must be coordinated among a number of bureaucracies. |
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