Blame for forest fires debated

SPRINGERVILLE, Ariz. -- An eastern Arizona rancher blames the U.S. Forest Service and environmentalists for the Wallow fire that has burned more than 440,000 acres in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest and White Mountains. An ecologist says the problem began more than a century ago and could be resolved in a decade with the right approach.

Rancher Gary Khiene said he knows eactly what caused the disastrous fire: "The special interest groups that have stymied and handcuffed our national Forest Service and invaded the national Forest Service with their own personnel to keep them from allowing livestock to be raised on our national forests and the logging the same way."

While Khiene and other residents of the area blame the environmentalists seeking to protect wildlife, others say the Forest Service should never have lifted campfire restrictions on a windy Memorial Day weekend. The fire started southwest of Alpine May 29, possibly from an abandoned campfire.

Khiene said the environmentalists should be on the fire lines.

"They ought to be here. They ought to be here with their sleeves rolled up. If they truly care about the resources, why aren't they out here trying to fight the fire?"

David Brewer, an ecologist with Northern Arizona University's forestry research team, agrees the forests are in trouble.

"Twenty years ago, the 46,000-acre Crown fire was a big, big deal," Brewer said. "Now, they don't bat an eye 20- to 30,000-acres."

The problem started long before environmentalists began worrying about saving spotted owls, said Brewer.

"The minute settlers started coming in, to the southwest and the west in general, I'm sure they were putting fires out," he said, adding they had large herds of cattle and some over-grazing problems.

The Smokey Bear campaign of the 1940s -- "Only you can prevent forest fires" -- added to the anti-fire climate, said Brewer.

"We didn't let fire do its thing to kind of clean out a lot of the trees and try to re-establish that evolutionary history of the Ponderosa pine."

Then, there was the closing of timber mills.

"The industry left almost 20 years ago now. And we don't have those large mills that could handle a lot of product."

With good management and responsible milling, Brewer said healthy forests could be about a decade away.