Costly battles rekindle let-it-burn controversy

When 43,000-plus acres of forest went up in smoke last month, so did almost $13 million used to battle the blazes in the Rincon and Chiricahua mountains.

The U.S. Forest Service spent $6.9 million fighting the 14,600-acre blaze in the Rincon Mountains and $6 million for the 27,500-acre Rattlesnake fire in the Chiricahua Mountains.

But the question remains as to whether the money was well spent, or whether lightning-caused fires should be allowed to burn.

Although Smokey Bear's 50th birthday was Tuesday, some ecologists and wildlife officers reject the icon's message that forest fires are bad, preferring instead to let the blazes burn.

Much of the argument about forest fires centers on the use of prescribed fires, those deliberately set and controlled to reduce fuel on forest floors (dead trees, brush, limbs). The service now spends too much time on just fighting large wildfires that feed on these fuels, pro-burn forces say.

``We've come to view fire as our archenemy the last 100 years, especially in the national forests,'' said Ron Olding, a wildlife program manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

``All this Smokey Bear coverage we've gotten, it's man fighting against the fire, a mind-set the public has from the negativeness of fire. Thirteen million dollars, that's a lot of money you would like to have in your treasury. You're kind of wasting your money and your time.

``Generally, the impacts (of fire) for wildlife are positive. The habitat is rejuvenated, and things bounce back in two to three years.

``Fire can play a part in knocking back plants that aren't palatable to wildlife. Fire, in the context of periodic, controlled burns, makes for younger, more nutritious growth. Predators get the chance to sneak up on game without fires. Fire knocks back this growth and predator victims are given a better chance for survival for several years.''

Fire can accomplish good things, but Forest Service personnel are unable to do more prescribed fires, the head of the Coronado National Forest says.

``The Coronado National Forest has only one prescribed fire plan. We haven't done others because a lot of our fire folks have retired or moved on, and we are operating under a constrained budget,'' said Mike Borens, acting forest supervisor of the Coronado National Forest.

``There's a negative incentive for us to do those because we only get the funding for the basic things that we need,''he said.

Critics say the U.S. Forest Service can't spend $100,000 to draw up and execute a prescribed fire plan, but has a `blank check' when it comes to battling forest wildfires such as the millions spent on the Rincon and Rattlesnake fires.

More prescribed burns in the past probably would have prevented large fires like the Rincon and Rattlesnake, said Larry Allen, range, timber and watershed staff officer with the Forest Service here. ``Fifty years of fire suppression has resulted in the heavy buildup of fuels,'' he said.

``We now believe that the buildup of fuels we have is an unnatural thing. If we had allowed more natural and prescribed fires to burn in cooler times of the year then we wouldn't have had fires like the Rattlesnake and Rincon.''

The fuel buildup on the ground of the Rattlesnake fire was particularly bad with about 100 tons of it per acre, Allen added. Some parts of the Mount Graham area now have 200 tons per acre, he said.

It costs big bucks to fight big forest fires using firefighters, helicopters and planes and other equipment. But Borens says his office doesn't have a blank check because ``there are still checks and balances to make sure we`re not doing things that aren't needed.''

The almost $13 million spent fighting the two major fires was justified, Borens said. Ranches, camps, recreation areas and other buildings were undamaged, he said. There were 400 firefighters on the Rincon and 500 on the Rattlesnake, he said.

Saving lives and property is important, but fire also has an important ecological role, others say.

``We're understanding more and more that we should have fire to maintain the ecological system. It looks pretty to have trees limb to limb in the forest, but then there's competition for air and water; fire clears out the sick trees,'' said Chuck Scott, fire management officer with the Saguaro National Monument of the U.S. National Park Service.

``It's a very complicated issue; some editorialize that we should put all fires out; that's the expensive, but easy way. Back in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, when we came into the Western area the perception of fire was bad. It destroyed all the timber, the animals. We had Smokey Bear. We've been raised to look at fire as predatory,'' Scott said.

Both big fires had a natural start as well.

They were started by lightning about June 28. The Rincon fire started in the Saguaro National Monument's east unit, Scott said. Officials originally decided to let it burn and identified up to 4,300 acres they thought would benefit from it.

The fire was about 1.5 miles from U.S. Forest Service land, Scott said. But officials were counting on help from the monsoon rains, which failed to arrive, to help control it.

By July 4 the fire had spread and the U.S. Forest Service was fighting other fires, including the Rattlesnake, and decided it didn't want any more fires on Forest Service land, Scott said. With that, the battle to contain the Rincon Fire began in earnest.

``We would like to allow fire its natural role as much as possible, but if it's on a boundary with state, federal government or private land we've got to make an effort to suppress it. Mother Nature bats last,'' he said.

Since January there have been eight fires in the Rincons and 23 in the Chiricahuas, said Mary Anna Wheat, fire information officer with the Coronado National Forest. The Forest Service fought six of the fires in the Rincons and fought only the Rattlesnake fire in the Chiricahuas, she said.

Should there be more of a ``let-it-burn'' policy?

``With some limitations, said Coronado forest chief Borens. ``Many times fires do do a lot of good. In the Rattlesnake fire, because of the tremendous buildup of fuel over the years it burned a lot hotter than we would have liked to have seen.

``It's hard to say what would have happened there if there had been prescribed fires there the past 100 years. But others know more about fire ecology than I do, like the folks at the (University of Arizona) Tree Ring Laboratory,'' said Borens.

The tree-ring researchers say there should be more prescribed fires.

``It's ironic that $13 million can be spent to control fires, but they don't have $100,000 for controlled, prescribed burns to reduce fuel in the forests,'' said Tom Swetnam, an associate professor of the University of Arizona Laboratory Tree-Ring Research. ``It's not worth the money to suppress them, a hell of a lot of fuels could be reduced with that money.''

Swetnam has and is doing research into fires in the Rincons and Chiricahua mountains.

Prescribed fires should be done in the Rincon, Chiricahua and other mountain ranges in the fall and winter months when it is cooler and there are no thunderstorms with lightning, Swetnam said. Taking chain saws in and hacking away would be too expensive, he said.

``The bottom line is they should let fires burn; that's what nature did here for thousands of years before the white man came,'' said Henri Grissino-Mayer, a research associate at the tree-ring laboratory, who is also studying fires in the Chiricahua Mountains.

``We must undo 40 or 50 years of Smokey Bear, one of the most successful campaigns in history, but also one of the most damaging,'' said Grissino-Mayer. The money spent to fight the Rattlesnake fire ``was an incredible waste,'' he said.

The fuel buildup in many forest areas is reaching the critical point, he said. ``You couldn't get me to buy a cabin in Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon,'' Grissino-Mayer said.

``All one needs to do is look at the way fires burned through everything in Oakland, Calif.; Washington; and Yellowstone National Park because of huge fuel buildups on the ground. There's nothing the Forest Service can do, and Summerhaven will be toast,'' when a large fire strikes there, he said.

All it will take to start a huge fire is two wet summers and one extremely dry one with lightning strikes, Grissino-Mayer said.

Fires have burned forests for thousands of years before humans came along and decided to put them out, Swetnam said.

U.S. Cavalry reports from Tucson in the latter part of the 19th century noted smoke hanging over the Rincons for weeks and months, Swetnam said.

Ecological and historical evidence regarding the role of fire in the natural maintenance of forests has shifted the role of the Forest Service toward a greater acceptance of fire, but the change has been slow, he said.

``The will is there, but the wallet isn't there,'' for more prescribed burnings of forest land, said Swetnam.

``That's a fair statement,'' Borens said. ``But you can't address the whole fire situation with a let-it-burn policy.'' Fires that could threaten lives, property, and watersheds must be carefully considered (for suppression), he said.

Critics, of course, also agreed fires should be fought to save lives and some properties.

``In the future we will address the fire situation in more detail,'' Borens said.

Borens said a meeting of forest officials will be held soon to discuss dangerous situations like the potential for fierce fire storms on Mount Lemmon and Mount Graham because of the buildups of fuel there.

Mount Graham, in the Pinaleno Mountains southwest of Safford, is particularly dangerous because ``there's only one road up and one road down. People could get trapped there,'' he said.

Mount Lemmon has a back road for escape should that ever be necessary, Borens added. He advised residents in those areas to remove fuel from around their cabins, make sure they have spark arresters on their chimneys, make sure their roofs aren't wooden ones, and have an escape plan.

``To say that prescribed burning is the answer, that is only one of the tools that we have. It's not a cut and dried issue,'' said Ed Ayala, acting forest fire staff officer for the Coronado.

``Prescribed burning becomes more difficult as we have people being in and adjacent to the prescribed areas.

``The Forest Service was justified in fighting the Rincon and Rattlesnake fires,'' said Ayala. ``With the policies and procedures we have now, there was no other way of doing it.''

Map by Karin Thompson, The Arizona Daily Star