The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a very active blog where they frequently post articles about activities within the department. The U.S. Forest Service, of course, is in the USDA and we found quite a few stories on the site about wildfire. Here are four examples that have appeared on the blog over the last six months, with excerpts from the articles:
January 19, 2012: US Forest Service Trains Fire Brigades in the Brazilian Amazon
“…Recently, representatives from the Payette National Forest trained over 80 community and fire brigade members [in Brazil]. As a result, the landholders and tribes in Mato Grosso are better prepared to control, manage and prevent fires from destroying farms, ranches, and the remaining tropical Amazon forests in the region. The work preserves livelihoods and conserves biodiversity and tropical forests.”
December 5, 2011: French firefighters learn from California visit
“…The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region recently welcomed French fire officials Captain Philippe DelQuie and Major Pierre Bisone. The visit was part of a very successful seven year educational collaboration between France and the U.S. through the Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management’s International Fire office.
They hail from the Bouches-du-Rhone (Aix-En-Provence) Fire Department, a provincial fire agency in the south of France.
At home, their duties include wildland fire management in a Mediterranean climate similar to that found on national forestlands in southern California.
Their 12-day tour included stops at several national forests, national parks and local fire agencies.”
October 20, 2011: Conscientious Objectors Play Important Role in Smoke Jumping During World War II
“…By the 1940s, the smoke jumping program was a valuable asset to the U.S. Forest Service. Unfortunately, with the country’s men drafted during World War II, the Forest Service experienced a significant loss in federal personnel which impacted the fire program.
To help offset the loss of personnel, the Civilian Public Service program provided conscientious objectors a legal alternative to military service by giving them the opportunity to serve as smoke jumpers.
These smoke jumpers, who were paid $5 per month, undertook work ordinarily accomplished by federal employees, primarily through camps administered by the Quaker, Brethren, Mennonite and Religious Society of Friends historic peace church organizations. This unusual church-state partnership afforded more than 12,000 men the opportunity to perform “work of national importance,” but not as combatants.
In 1943, 60 conscientious objectors were chosen from a pool of over 300 volunteers. By 1946, the camp disbanded and the men returned to their families and their lives from before the war. Without the service of these men, the Forest Service would have likely had to discontinue the smoke jumping program during the war years.
June 29, 2011: US Forest Service Research of Black Fingers of Death Fungus May Lessen the Intensity of Wildland Fires
“The long battle to mitigate and potentially eliminate cheatgrass, one of the American West’s most menacing invasive weeds, has just taken a positive step forward. U.S. Forest Service research, conducted by ecologist Susan Meyer, has demonstrated in field trials that the fungal pathogen known commonly has Black Fingers of Death is very effective in eliminating the cheatgrass carryover seed bank that can come back to haunt a restoration seeding after apparently successful control.
“Biocontrol using naturally occurring fungal pathogens is a novel approach that, while not completely effective when used alone, could provide valuable tools for use in conjunction with other control methods,” said Meyer. “Currently Black Fingers of Death is the most promising biocontrol organism we have, because it can kill dormant cheatgrass seeds.”
Aside from displacing more useful and benign native grass species, cheatgrass, brought in from Europe in the late Nineteenth Century, grows rapidly, dries out quickly and burns intensely.
In fact, it is this “fuel to the fire” aspect of cheatgrass that is partially to blame for the greater intensity of wildland fires especially in more arid regions of the West.”
