A new fire paradigm is emerging.

EUGENE - Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE) released statements from wildland firefighters who currently serve on engine crews who oppose the Trump Administration's proposal to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule ("Roadless Rule"). The Administration claims that roadless area protections impede wildfire suppression and that building new logging roads will help prevent wildfires by improving firefighter safety and efficiency. Engine crew members refute this claim, offering several reasons from their personal and professional experience why typical Forest Service logging roads present hazardous conditions for transporting and staging firefighting crews. The firefighters argue that aviation-supported handcrews are better suited to manage fires in rugged roadless terrain, and the absence of human communities or critical infrastructure in roadless wildlands provide more opportunities to safely manage fire in order to restore landscape wildfire resilience.

The dawning twilight signaled us that we had really contained this fire. Time to return to the jump spot where our mixed load of Jumpers from several bases stowed our cargo boxes. There we’d find a food bag and sleeping bag and reconnoiter a place on the slope that could be serviceable for a sleeping hootch. Then we will join the communal campfire for food, fabulous fables, and friendship. Here comes “the hour of the pearl” as Steinbeck called it…

Incendiary Imbeciles #12

For those whose destiny intertwines with fire lands, the ethics of wild, ethereal, untrammeled places become mosaics of parity and belonging. For those who journey born-again or always-been, stoic and bountiful firescapes bequeath thousands of beautiful, singular memories when encountered with abiding reverence. Wildfires can be stochastic and auspicious disturbances that bring great opportunities for ecosystems, firefighters, local contractors, and other parasites.