Author: Bill Gabbert

The District Ranger at the Pawnee National Grassland in northeast Colorado (map) has postponed a planned prescribed fire after the local county commissioners adopted an ordinance prohibiting it without local permission.

At the center of the controversy is the rare and inappropriately-named Mountain Plover. Unlike it’s name, the bird prefers to nest on flat ground that is bare or has short grass. This type of vegetation, or lack of it, can be found following a fire, very heavy grazing, or in prairie dog habitat. The bird is being considered for listing as a threatened or endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Of the 5,000 to 11,000 Mountain Plovers that are estimated to still exist, many of them like to nest at the Pawnee National Grassland. This would be no problem, except that the U. S. Forest Service, which manages the land, likes to conduct regular prescribed fires to enhance the habitat for the bird. And the ranchers who lease the grazing rights on the public land get very grumpy when the grass they lease is burned off. The Federal grazing fee for 2010 is $1.35 per animal unit month, which is a pretty sweet deal for ranchers, and very generous of the U. S. citizens.

The ranchers think their cattle should be used to graze the area and shorten the grass for the Mountain Plover, but the USFS says this  does not reduce enough of the grass to create a good habitat for the the bird.

So the County Commissioners took the side of the ranchers last week and passed an ordinance prohibiting the burns on the USFS land without their permission. Lori Bell, the District Ranger, says the County has no jurisdiction on the federal land, but she has agreed to postpone the prescribed fire until she has a chance to meet with the commissioners on Monday, March 22.

In December of 2008 Ms. Bell signed a Finding of No Significant Impact for a plan to implement a prescribed fire program on the Pawnee National Grassland. There were many opportunities for public input during the planning process. The plan calls for burning up to 6,000 acres each year, with a fire return interval of 10 to 35 years. No more than one-third of any one grazing allotment will be burned in any one year and no more frequently than every 10 years.

In our opinion, sure, the concerns of local residents and permittees should be solicited during the planning process for prescribed fire and other large-scale land management projects, such as when an Environmental Assessment or prescribed fire plan is being written. But after obtaining the input and mitigating any concerns that are appropriate, the best interests of the land and the citizens should be the primary driving force, and not necessarily the loudest of the special interest groups.

All of the instructors and staff members at the Arizona Wildfire Academy in Prescott are volunteers, including the Brown family, Harold, Cheryl, and Lindsay, 8. Here is an excerpt from a story in the Daily Courier.

Harold Brown is a 23-year veteran of the Sun City Fire District, working as a paramedic and engineer (fire engine driver). He spent his first three years at the Wildfire Academy as a student, transitioning to the staff last year.

“I’m really glad I came. I felt like I would have missed out, because he comes home talking about it,” Cheryl said.

Harold has served as a base camp manager on wildfires across the country for as long as 21 days at a time, helping set up tent communities for hundreds of firefighters at a time. Now he is training at the Wildfire Academy as a facilities unit leader, another base camp job.

“It’s very rewarding to see all the young students coming in, and there is a lot of camaraderie,” Harold said.

Cheryl is working at the academy check-in desk, helping students find their class locations and selling academy banquet tickets.

“I like helping people,” Cheryl said. “You give in life, it all comes back. And I’m learning, too.”

Lindsay is helping her mom and dad, as well as running around delivering items to various parts of the campus. She’s had the opportunity to ride in her dad’s fire truck before and sometimes eat meals with him at the fire station, but this is the first time she’s worked with him.

While Lindsay was talking about her work Tuesday, she got an assignment to deliver an academy T-shirt to one of the instructors and quickly ran up the hill to another building on the sprawling Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus.

“She’s incredible,” Howard said. “Eight years old and she came in here and did not miss a beat.”

One of Lindsay’s favorite jobs has been reading quiz questions to students in the Interagency Incident Business Management class.

“They’ve worked really hard in that class,” she said.

Lindsay has been collecting firefighter pins and attaching them to the lanyard that holds her name card around her neck. Her pins feature everything from Smokey Bear to the Montecito (California) Fire Department logo. She also has a new T-shirt that reads, “Firefighter’s daughter – keep back 50 feet.”

She is proud to point out that she is the youngest employee at the Wildfire Academy, and even more proud of the Certificate of Appreciation she received Tuesday.

“It’s really hard to get one of these,” she beamed. “You’ve got to work really hard.”

With that, she ran off to deliver something else.

“She just runs and runs and runs,” observed Todd Rhines, a longtime Prescott-area firefighter who is the Wildfire Academy’s safety officer. “My granddaughters would be crashing by now.”

Attending the academy this year are 619 students from 20 states and Canada.