The Fires of 2000 have now joined other momentous fire years etched into American fire history: the Great Burn of 1910, the Yellowstone Fires of '88, and the wildfires of 1994.

In 1988, while a ranger at Yellowstone, I participated in the largest firefighting effort in U.S. history, including over 25,000 firefighters. These great fires have seared themselves into our collective memories. Unfortunately, many of the lessons we should have drawn from them have not.

Not only are these large western wildfires one of nature's most compelling dramas, they have also become the object of a media and political firestorm perhaps hotter than the fires themselves. The blame game is in full swing and taxpayers and forest lovers had best beware.

Timber opportunists and their political cronies have targeted President Clinton, Vice President Gore and our nation's environmental policies as the culprits for this summer's extended burning. For example, Montana Governor Marc Racicot (R) has embarked on a political crusade, taking every available media opportunity to place much of the blame on President Clinton and his administration's roadless area protection efforts. Similarly, timber industry flaks have run a full page ad blaming Al Gore, a blatantly partisan move during the height of the election campaign.

However, the facts belie the rhetoric. According to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, most of this season's blazes have burned in previously roaded and logged landscapes as opposed to roadless areas. Moreover, these are equal opportunity fires, igniting wherever the lightning struck or the careless forest user tossed their cigarette. The reality is that we are in the midst of near-record drought conditions, accompanied by a rash of storms which brought lightning strikes and high winds, but little or no precipitation. Thousands of people have also moved into the woods in recent years, unaware of the danger and thus setting the stage for personal loss and tragedy.

We also need to be aware that the vast inland forests of the Northern Rockies and the West have evolved with large-scale wildfires. Fire is, in fact, as much a part of these forests as snow, wind, sun and rain. While awe-inspiring and dramatic, the western forests have not, as timber cutting advocates would have it, destroyed the national forests and grasslands. On a retrospective journey to Yellowstone ten years after those historic blazes, I witnessed a profuse carpet of hardy young lodgepole pines throughout the burn areas. Many are already 6 to 8 feet tall. Aspen have regenerated in areas where they were largely absent for many years prior to the fires and scientists documented that fish populations actually increased. Yellowstone has come back, more beautiful and diverse than ever.

There is much to be learned from this season's conflagration as well as those of the past. Perhaps the most important lesson is that we shouldn't succumb to the blame game played by politicians and corporate lobbyists who seek to create hype and hysteria, a heady combination that opens wide the public taxpayer spigots. In Yellowstone, over $120 million was spent and more than 850 miles of fireline constructed with virtually no effect--the fires didn't stop until it snowed. The same pattern is evident this season, when up to $30 million per day is being spent but fire managers openly concede that only snow and rain can douse the flames. We can no more stop these large fires burning in rugged mountain country than we can order a hurricane to change course. Fighting fire in the vast, rugged landscapes of the West is largely a wasted effort that squanders enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars, needlessly puts firefighters at risk and creates resource damage in pristine areas. Most fire bosses and fire behavior specialists are well aware of this fact, but the political heat forces them into a no-win situation.

However, there is one area where firefighting has become increasingly effective: structure protection. In Yellowstone, we did not lose a single high-value structure throughout four months of firefighting in the face of the most extreme fire conditions ever recorded. The key to this success is the thinning of dense fuel accumulations adjacent to structures to create "defensible space." In some cases "backfires" are deliberately set to reduce the fuel available to the advancing fire front. Fire engines are strategically placed in key areas. Remote structures and power line poles are wrapped with fire resistant materials. Structures are also wetted with foam and, in many places, pumps draw water from nearby creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes to feed sprinkler systems. Helicopters and retardant "slurry" bombers are used to hit hot spots.

It's time for intelligent planning which extends throughout the year, and not just when the flames are within a stone's throw. We will have more large fires. It's not a matter of if but when. Sound policy decision-making cannot take place in a panic atmosphere fueled by timber opportunists.

What is needed is establishment of a permanent Fire Management Corps of experts at the city, county, state and federal levels who will consult with and assist citizens and local governments in fire prevention and fuel reduction programs well before fire seasons erupt. This program should be focused on very careful, site-specific thinning and if necessary, limited controlled burning of areas directly adjacent to high-value structures and historic sites. If done properly, when fire does approach, successful defense of these areas is much more likely.

Moreover, this approach is far more cost-effective than last-minute, after-the-fact reaction, which risks lives and often doesn't appreciably alter the course of the fires. We must also be willing to admit that some remote structures in heavily forested areas may not be defendable and aren't worth the risks to firefighters.

While it is true that 90 years of intensive fire suppression and logging activity have led to buildups of fuels, advocates of "forest health" restoration have taken a good idea to its illogical extreme. A prime example is the U.S. Forest Service proposal for a $12 billion thinning program across 40 million acres of National Forests from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Such proposals ignore the physical impossibility of "thinning" the vast rugged landscapes of our Western forests; nor will budget realities allow such grandiosity. Logging under the guise of fire prevention is a "bait and switch" tactic. If you broke one of your toes, you wouldn't want the doctor to set your nose. This is the case with the Forest Service and timber industry proposals. We need to treat the problem where it is actually located, which is mostly in people's backyards, not way up the mountainsides in the middle of the forest.

I have direct experience in labor-intensive and costly fuel reduction. In the Yellowstone fires I supervised several fuel reduction efforts and at one point oversaw a 125 person operation. Working 14 hour shifts for several days, we were only able to thin the areas directly adjacent to structures. Thinning millions of acres of western forests in a timely manner would take hundreds of thousands of workers and billions of dollars. It won't work and it isn't worth it.

And what would be done with all the many thousands of tons of fine fuels which would be thinned from these forests? You guessed it: they would most likely be piled and burned, introducing even more fire risk into our forests.

Fire suppression still has an important role to play on our public lands and there is no truth to the accusations that conservationists simply want to "let it all burn." We are grateful to the firefighters on the front lines, the support personnel and volunteers who have pulled together to get us through the 2000 wildfire season. Their heroic efforts are greatly appreciated. However, their efforts should be concentrated on defense of life and high-value property such as towns, power lines and historical sites. By planning ahead, and accepting that the forces of nature are far more powerful than us and our technology, we can apply the many lessons we have learned in recent fire seasons to an improved national fire policy based on economic necessity and ecological reality, and free of political gamesmanship.

Mike Bader (mbader@wildrockies.org; 406-721-5420; P.O. Box 8731, Missoula, MT 59807) is executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. He served as a squad boss, crew boss, resource advisor and fire monitor on the Yellowstone fires of 1988 and supervised several large-scale fuel reduction operations. He was also involved in the "Siege of "87" California wildfires and assisted residents in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana in fuel reduction and structure defense work this summer.

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