Wind Cave National Park is conducting a 3,400-acre prescribed fire today and tomorrow. The name of it is “American Elk” and the project is east of Hwy. 385 and south of Hwy. 87, north of Hot Springs, South Dakota. There are approximately 130 firefighters assigned from Wind Cave, other National Park service units, the Black Hills National Forest, the State of South Dakota, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A press release about the prescribed fire can be found HERE (it is a large 616k file).
Here are some photos that I shot today. More photos are on our Facebook Page.
Mount Rushmore administrative site, looking down from just below the sculpture . Photo by Bill Gabbert
Mount Rushmore National Memorial has posted a draft plan on how they intend to manage the mountain pine beetle (MPB) epidemic that is headed their way. The problem is real, with the beetles staged just outside the memorial’s boundary on U.S. Forest Service land. While the critters are native to South Dakota and much of the western US, if they wipe out most of the Ponderosa pines near the sculpture in a epidemic caused by years of drought, it will not be a very pleasing sight for the 2.5 million visitors that trek there every year.
The plan calls for thinning most of the 1,200-acre site, spraying some areas, and treating much of the site with prescribed fire. They are asking for $5,653,150 through FY 2014. That works out to $4,710 per acre. Here is a summary of their treatment recommendations.
Spraying high value trees with insecticide to prevent loss within the developed area
Search, mark, and remove infested trees throughout the Memorial
Thin forests along the Highway 244 corridor to create a fuel and bug break
Thin forests throughout the Memorial to varying density and age class levels
Thin a 300 foot MPB and fire break along the south, west, and east boundary of the Memorial
Introduce prescribed fire throughout the Memorial after thinning
Communicate MPB management issues to the public
The memorial has enough funding to begin implementing the plan if it is approved, but they will be asking for more dollars to work on the list above, plus hiring four employees, including interpreters and a public information officer.
CIA-linked private military contractor Evergreen Defense & Security Services offered to post sentries at Oregon election offices on Tuesday, “detaining troublemakers” and making sure voters “do not get out of control.”
In an e-mail to local election supervisors, obtained by the McMinnville, Oregon News Register, Evergreen president Tom Wiggins said he “recognized the potential conflict” that could occur on November 4th. “Never has there been a more heated battle in the race for president.”
The company, he said, ‘proposes to post sentries at each voting center on November 4th to assure that disputes amongst citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed, but capable of stopping any violence that may occur and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement arrives.’
In an update to the article, the author says that this proposal seems odd, since the state of Oregon conducts their voting by mail.
Evergreen owns and leases a fleet of 54 light, medium, and heavy helicopters, 30 of which can be used to fight fires. They are also seeking a firefighting contract with CalFire for their 747 “Supertanker”, which can carry over 20,000 gallons of fire retardant.
Changes at DHS after the election?
Will either candidate for President make significant changes, including response to wildfires, at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after they are elected? Domestic homeland security, other than protection from terrorist attacks and perhaps hurricanes, has not been a major topic of discussion during the campaign. The candidates have little time left after extensively covering plumbers and arguing about whose (tax cut) is larger.
However, in the DHS, the transition to a new administration has been receiving a lot of attention. Rear Admiral John Acton of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve is leading the DHS transition team in the develpment of a massive briefing book as well as training exercises for the incoming administration.
Jacob Goodwin at the Daily Beast covered the proceedings at a roundtable discussion in Washington, DC on October 15 where the transition was the primary topic. Here is an excerpt from his report.
C. Stewart Verdery, Jr., who was an assistant secretary of DHS for policy and planning from 2003 to 2005 and is now a lobbyist, noted that he was not “formally” representing the McCain campaign at the roundtable discussion. But he went on to say, “I don’t expect you’d see wholesale changes to the DHS apparatus,” in a McCain administration.
On the campaign trail, McCain sometimes notes with pride that the U.S. has remained free from attack since 9/11, although in recent weeks issues of homeland security have largely been shouldered aside by more pressing economic concerns.
Verdery predicted that McCain would implement some measures, such as the Real ID drivers’ licenses—which have been resisted by local authorities because they were mandated without the funds to pay for them—and add an “exit” capability to the existing “entry” capability of the US-VISIT program at U.S. borders.
Verdery also implied that Joe Lieberman might be named the head of DHS in a McCain administration. The independent Senator from Connecticut, who currently chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, will “probably not be the most welcome guy” in the Democratic Party after this election, he said.
Senator Barack Obama also sits on that homeland security committee, and his legislative aide for DHS issues, Rachana “Ruchi” Bhowmik, presented his views at the Aspen event. She would not identify any individuals who might be appointed Secretary of DHS in an Obama administration, but she took her own swipe at the Republicans by saying that Obama “appreciates the need to restore professionalism and the need for management skills.”
Bhowmik agreed with Verdery that, given the huge financial problems confronting the U.S., neither candidate is likely to mount a wholesale reorganization of the five-year-old DHS.
Still, she said, Obama has some fundamental differences with the Bush adminstration about both the mission and the performance at DHS. Obama, she explained, favors an “all-hazards” approach that goes beyond counterterrorism to emphasize preparedness for natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and wildfire. That stems, in part, from the fact that Obama’s home state of Illinois, has been hit with “everything but locusts this year,” she said.
In the past, Obama has floated the idea of moving FEMA out of DHS. But push-back from various quarters on Capitol Hill—including from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee—makes it unlikely that Obama would propose anything like that in the first 100 days.
Nevertheless, Obama takes issue with the idea that state and local governments should respond to local disasters entirely on their own and turn to the federal government only as a last resort. On the contrary, Obama believes it is the proper role of the federal government to come into a dire situation, such as Hurricane Katrina, she explained.
But in the view of the Obama camp, the Bush administration politicized DHS and dictated homeland security policy unwisely to the state and local governments. “Unless we pull ideology out of the driver’s seat,” she said, “we’ll see first responders getting told what to do by the feds.”
But homeland security “has not been a very hot topic” on the campaign trail, Bhowmick admitted. “The American people have other things they’re thinking about.”
Until something terrible and unforeseen happens.
California: less prescribed burning?
According to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune where a CalFire Chief, Thom Porter, was interviewed:
Porter, the CalFire chief, said the fire breaks and big backcountry burns went away when budget cuts coincided with environmental regulations protecting endangered species and limiting air pollution.
Burns to eliminate dry brush and other fuel for big fires are still done, but only after the effects on the environment are aired.
The article goes on to say:
Now, the kind of b
rush clearing that used to
be done by flame is mostly accomplished by hand and machine and is targeted, almost surgically, to protect individual homes and sites such as radio towers.
It’s more expensive, and fire officials say there isn’t enough money to deal with the huge expanses of tinder-dry backcountry.
“With the current resources we have, we will not ever catch up,” said Thom Porter, a Cal Fire staff chief who heads the Forest Area Safety Task Force in San Diego.
Porter said prescribed burns are still used but not very widely.
He estimates agencies in the county would have to clear about 27,000 acres every year simply to eliminate brush that hasn’t burned in more than 50 years.
“Our current capacity is about 7,000 acres,” Porter said.
Louisiana: smoke causes vehicle accidents
Firegeezer has a story about how smoke from a vegetation fire in a marsh degraded visibility on a Louisiana highway and caused at least a dozen wrecks.
This reminds me of the January 8 incident in Florida where smoke from an escaped prescribed fire smoked out a highway, causing over 70 accidents and 5 fatalities.
It was a little surreal today standing in the snow trying to picture what a very intense fire was doing in that very spot 9 months ago. The 40 of us participating in a “Staff Ride” for the July, 2007, Alabaugh fire near Hot Springs, South Dakota, were recreating in our minds what two people entrapped by the fire were going through last summer.
(As usual, click on the photos to see larger versions.)
Alabaugh Fire, July 7, 2008. Photo by Bill Gabbert
The all-day experience began with a couple of hours of classroom time, where we got some information about staff rides in general, and some basic information about the Alabaugh fire, including a portion of the video segment about the fire that is in this year’s wildland fire refresher. We wrote about this year’s refresher training HERE on March 23 where I modestly mentioned that some of my photos of the fire are being used in the training.
Then we spent most of the rest of the day in the field, walking in the very footsteps of the people who on July 7, 2007, were fighting a very complex, rapidly developing, wildland-urban interface fire. Many of those firefighters were with us out there today, telling us what they saw, what they were thinking, and giving us the opportunity to experience the fire through their perceptions–but while standing in 2″ of snow, rather than 100+ degree temperatures, 7% relative humidity, and strong shifting winds gusting out of thunderstorm cells.
Al Stover, Initial Attack Incident Commander, showing us the point of origin. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
Jim Cook, Staff Ride Facilitator. Photo by Bill Gabbert
At the entrapment site. Photo by Bill Gabbert
Two firefighters had to share one fire shelter, since one of them forgot his line gear, leaving it in his vehicle while he got out to direct a structure protection operation. Then he became engaged in the some firing, got entrapped, and lived to tell about it.
This hard hat was blown off the head of one of the persons entrapped. It was left on the ground while he was sharing a fire shelter with another firefighter. Photo by Bill Gabbert
An interesting facet of the staff ride was that it served as the 8-hour annual wildland fire refresher that is now required by many agencies. And yes, we practiced getting into a fire shelter in 30 seconds….. with a twist. We all shared a shelter with one other person! WHAT? Yes, it’s true!
The St. Mary’s fire on the George Washington National Forest has grown to 4,060 acres. (UPDATE March 30; 4,505 acres) It’s interesting the way the media describes the aerial ignition operation.
From The News Virginian, an excerpt:”Instead of rain, a helicopter dropped a hailstorm of ping-pong-ball-sized balls of a chemical that, with a delayed reaction of about 10 seconds, started a potent fire – on the east and west slopes of the ridge leading to Route 56. It’s known as a backfire operation, McPhereson said, and it worked to contain the fire.
Helitorch photo by Bill Gabbert
At the same time that was happening, most of the 121 people involved, from federal and state agencies to local volunteers, were out burning terrain along the road leading away from the bulldozer line, according to Charlie Rudacille, normally with Shenandoah National Park but one of those assisting in controlling the fire.
The helicopter chemical drops, he said, would help prevent big runs with the fires and would lessen their intensity.
In the half-hour it took for the helicopter to drop the many thousands of chemical balls and make its way around both sides of the ridge, visibility was reduced to near-zero as heavy, dark-brown smoke filled the sky and bright orange flames dotted the slopes.
“If it all goes well, in an hour it’ll be boring,” Rudacille said while the helicopter was in the air.
The gusting, 15 to 20 mph winds – blowing the fire northeast, away from the west slope – was a blessing to the firefighters, as were the dry, overcast conditions. But Rudacille was aware of forecasts calling for a chance of thunderstorms later in the day.
“The thunderstorm, and the erratic winds associated with the thunderstorm, would be a problem,” Rudacille said.”
