Major management changes seen as key to fighting catastrophic fires
5 hours 5 minutes ago by Dennis Bragg - KPAX NewsMISSOULA - Fighting the growing number of large catastrophic fires will take more than additional firefighters and air tankers. It's also going to take a major shift in the way we're managing our forest and range lands.
As the number, and intensity, of fires has increased over the past decade, government has been throwing everything it has at these "megafires". But experts at the conference say we're reaching the point where fire suppression is no longer enough, even in Montana, where there's some of the best cross agency cooperation in The West...
TOM HARBOUR/USFS FIRE & AVIATION DIRECTOR
"This problem we've got with vegetation. This problem we've got with communities is going to demand that same kind of approach," said Tom Harbour, USFS Fire and Aviation Director.
Harbour, chief of fire and aviation for the Forest Service, is among those saying the existing management structure has become ponderous, struggling with environmental regulations that slow down public lands management, "This is something that really demands a unity of focus on the health of those systems."
Proof in point is last year's Lolo Creek fire. While private landowners are already logging and replanting, adjacent public lands remain stagnant...
"That's a big challenge for land managers I think in the years ahead. How do we manage these ecosystems? It's not so much about how flight fire. It's about how we manage the land," said Jerry Williams, retired US Forest Service Fire and Aviation Director.
And speakers at the conference say tackling megafires especially needs cross-boundary cooperation...
"This may be a Department of Interior land and the focus where we have some funding. But we've got our neighbor, the Forest Service or whoever's right next to it. How can we engage them more fully in this? And think beyond our border," said Henry Bastian, Department of Interior Fire Ecologist.
Everyone here talked about the "people factors" as well, and how states and counties could do their part addressing development of homes bordering on forest, where much of the destruction is happening...
"When you combine that with what attracts people to places like Missoula, the beautiful views, the wildlife, the forests that surround the 5 valleys, we've got ourselves a problem that isn't going away, that we've really got to focus on collectively for the future. Absolutely," said Harbour.
"You know we've gotta at some point back up, get on the ridge and ask are we headed in the right direction," said Williams.
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