I hope to set the record straight
There has been a lot of discussion in the media lately on the national forest treatment activities associated with the management of the San Juan fire on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. I hope to at least set the record straight on what has occurred, and dispel some inaccurate information as it relates to vegetation management activities on the local level.
The San Juan Fire started around noon on Thursday, June 26, 2014 on White Mountain Apache Tribal lands near San Juan Lake. The fire was driven by a strong southwest wind and soon crossed over onto the Apache-Sitgreaves NF, about 6 miles south of Vernon. Fort Apache Agency of the BIA ordered the Southwest Area Incident Management Team (IMT) 4 (Matt Reidy’s team), who assumed command of the fire at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 27, 2014. The fire was making significant crown fire runs in the mixed conifer, and burning downslope toward the transition into ponderosa pine. One of the first pieces of information from the San Juan fire IMT was the accounts of the fire laying down when it hit areas of treatment in the pine.
White Mountain Stewardship (WMS) is still the oldest and largest “operationally active” stewardship contract in the country, beginning in August, 2004 and terminating in August, 2014. It terminates in August because federal law requires all Integrated Resource Service Contracts to have a maximum term of ten years. WMS was developed in the aftermath of the Rodeo-Chediski Fire of 2002 to treat fuels, especially around communities, and to build industry to support future treatment opportunities. It is, and has been, wildly successful. The degree of magnitude did not rise to the 150,000 acre threshold as planned, but has resulted in over 70,000 acres of mechanical treatment. A large portion of those treatments occurred in the path of the San Juan Fire. We don’t have to go back very far to see the same benefits of treatments in Alpine, Nutrioso, Eagar and Greer from the Wallow Fire.
But that’s not the whole story for the San Juan Fire; there have been thousands of acres of other treatments outside WMS that include additional timber sales, stewardship contracts and prescribed fire. Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Arizona Elk Society, Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Habitat Partnership Committee have all stepped up to contribute funds to carry out these additional fire and vegetation management activities. Some news accounts have stated all these activities in past tense, but during the San Juan Fire active logging was still occurring with log decks immediately adjacent to the fire lines. Additionally, prescribed fire is occurring whenever fire personnel can safely meet the objectives of their burn plans.
Suppression activities on the nearly 7,000 acre San Juan Fire are estimated to cost about $6.5 million (excluding resource values), with $250,000 of that total included as Burned Area Emergency Response. The above mentioned activity equates to approximately $932/acre. Without prior treatments modifying fire behavior, the number of acres burned, the total costs of suppression and risk to firefighters would have been much higher. Mechanical treatments and prescribed fire modify the fuels environment; remember the fire triangle contains air (oxygen) heat and fuel. The goal of treatment, whether by mechanical means or prescribed fire, is to reduce the effects of heat generated by reducing the amount of fuels. That in turn reduces the propensity for fires to reach the crowns of trees, and allows firefighters a safer work environment.
Mechanical treatment costs have actually fallen from a high of around $500/acre ten years ago to at or near zero costs today. For the past three and a half years, competitively bid timber sales and stewardship contracts have actually posted positive returns to Treasury. However, another cost center that must be addressed is the cost in firefighter safety. It is not enough to say one person or another is to blame for firefighter losses we’ve experienced over the past few years. Even one is not acceptable; even one is not on the table as a consequence of actions. Treatments do improve the “odds” of firefighter’s successfully managing and/or suppressing wildfires in a safer environment.
But once again, fire suppression and national forest treatment costs are not the total story; those activities from partnership dollars, along with work being done by the Navajo, Greenlee and Apache counties in partnership with Arizona State Forestry and White Mountain Apache Tribe have contributed greatly to treating both sides of the ownership lines, whether it is federal, state, or private lands. Those continued partnership activities are what it is going to take to continue to make advancements in protecting communities and resources in the White Mountains. There is currently a national investigation team looking at the effectiveness of treatments – another requirement for incidents such as the San Juan Fire when a wildfire burns into managed areas. If past history is a guide, I think we may already know the results of that outcome.
Jim Zornes
Forest Supervisor
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests
A good time to pray!
In 1999 a mother drowned in an attempt to bring her child, Elain Gonzalez to America from the tyranny of Cuba. The press denounced the brave mother for endangering her child. Janet Reno used Storm Troopers to raid the home of relatives, at gun point to seize the 6 year old and he was drugged and returned to Cuba.
Today the same government is taking border guards off the borders and paying churches to buy resorts with WIFI, pools to house, clothe and feed and eventually educate these abandoned children.
Where are the Democrats who cheered as Elain was kicked out of our country to be returned to Communist Cuba? In fact, parents are arrested and their children are taken away from them here in the USA when they play in a park across the street without a parent present!
No, Obama is in fact encouraging, by actions, not words for even more such un-chaperoned children to flood across the border carrying God knows what contagious diseases.
Sadly the same government that booted Elain out of America is buying tickets for these illegal intruders and dispersing them on busses all over the United States.
Maybe one day God will grant the world's population 24 hours of clear thinking ability to see how they have been manipulated by the media. If there is ever a reason to pray for something this is it!
Sincerely,
Joseph DuPont
Towanda, Pennsylvania
"America" The Movie
My wife and I decided to go to Cinemark in The Woodlands, Texas to watch the movie "America."
It was a very good movie but to me it was really sad. It reminded me when over 50 years ago Fidel Castro was taking over my native country Cuba.
What can we do to stop this despot Barack Hussein Obama from completely destroying the USA? In Cuba Fidel Castro was just one man but millions of stupid Cubans supported him and allowed him to produce a military coup d'état that destroyed not only our institutions but also the whole country.
Here in the USA Obama, in reality, is not the problem. The problem is the number of idiots who support him not knowing what is coming to the USA and to our descendants.
One day late in 1959 or early 1960, I was sitting with a good friend, Pedro Julio Martinez Fraga at the Restaurant "El Jardin." He invited me to join him in a plot against the Castro regime. I turned him down telling him I had a wife and children I have to provide for and protect and, turning around, I pointed to the stupid people who were in the restaurant and told him: "You see all these stupid people here – if Castro catches me they will join the Communists asking for my execution. I will leave the country and wait for them to start awakening and leave Cuba."
Less than 30 days later my friend was in jail where he stayed for around 20 years. Many of those stupid people I referred to are living in Miami, Hialeah, Doral or Miami Beach today, not admitting to themselves how stupid they were.
Here in the USA the same is happening. Stupid people raise money for Obama without realizing he will make real his promise to transform the USA. Castro transformed Cuba and destroyed it. Obama is transforming the USA into a country where the parasites don't work and want to received a check every month. Obama is destroying the working class in order to create a Socialist USA.
When I left the theater everybody was applauding but I was feeling sorry for my 4 children, my 8 grandchildren, my 10 great grandchildren but mainly for the USA – which if a miracle doesn't happen – will disappear as a free nation.
Don't believe we are suffering a "humanitarian crisis" with the invasion of young people crossing our borders, breaking our laws. That is a premeditated and well planned invasion created by the Communists to destroy the USA. After them will come the next invasion of the elders who will break our laws and borders to make the USA disappear as a free country. A country without borders ceases to exist as a country.
More than 50 years ago I asked, in a press release, to the People of New Orleans to write to their congressmen to order a Congressional Investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald, a confessed Marxist and an agent of Fidel Castro. Today I am asking the American people to write to their congressmen asking for a Congressional Investigation of Barak Hussein Obama before he can achieve the political and economical destruction of the USA.
God bless America.
Dr. Carlos J. Bringuier
Email
America's poverty, do something about it
I've never lived in poverty. However, like most Americans I have known a few tough times. I do know that poverty is not pretty. I've never been around a hungry family that was dancing in joy because of their dire situation. Poverty is hard.
I grew up in Martin County, Kentucky. We were supposed to be the poorest county in the United States in 1964 when President Johnson began his campaign against poverty.
Government assistance came into existence to help the poor not only in our county but also throughout the United States. A few dollars from the government helps if you are down and out. However, living on government handouts for months and even years is a rock bottom life for the poor and our nation. Barely existing is an understatement when you are dependent every day on what you can get from the Federal Government. Our government, like many Americans, has spent more than it has taken in. Our national debt is headed to 18 trillion dollars. Extra money to hand out to impoverished Americans is going to decrease. There is no room for federal charity to grow.
Changing the direction of your life involves making big decisions. It could mean moving to a place where there are opportunities. There are paying jobs in America but you may need to go to the area where they are being offered. Staying where you are and dreaming that your ship will arrive is not reality.
Sometimes poverty has resulted from years of bad decisions, addictions and simply mentally zoning out about the realities of life.
Bad things often happen to people putting them into such a tail spin that they hit rock bottom losing their houses, cars and help from family and friends. There are lots of real reasons and stories people have about their situations.
People in poverty are lonely and feel hopeless. In Nashville, Tennessee on any given night there are over 8,000 homeless people bedding down in public places, or homeless shelters. There are also lots of veterans, elderly and young singles with no place to go. A family sleeping in an old car or huddled together on a park bench under a blanket is not beautiful American scenery. This same scenario is played out in most American cities only in different numbers.
Thousands of people storm our borders every day with no clue of how they will financially survive in America. However, America is their dream and their way of trying to reinvent their desperate lives. More poverty unfortunately is coming to America. President Johnson's dream of a great society of handouts to the down and out has maxed out.
This doesn't mean that America cannot be even greater than we are but the government is not going to create it. Our country is made of people. The fiber and soul of America is the spirit, of the American people, who each day says, "I must, I can and I will take control of my life and destiny." And then, do something about it.
Glenn Mollette
American columnist and author
[email protected]
Eric, the ever ready racist
Eric Holder (the worst ever Attorney General) attacks Sarah Palin and accuses Republicans of racism and animus based on race. Wow.
I personally despise both Holder and Barack Hussein Obama for being divisive frauds who have gone out of their way to promote racism. Their actions have set back racial harmony gained through many years of hard work. You both have avoided doing your jobs to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. You do nothing to protect ALL Americans regardless of race, color and political affiliation.
You cannot even begin to fathom how little I care about your opinions. Your lack of diligence and fairness has already proven to the majority of Americans that you are unfit, unreliable and un-American.
It is with extreme pleasure I take the time to do this so others may understand what a waste both you and Barack Hussein Obama truly are.
Tom Carbone
Cave Creek
Out of bounds
You don’t have to look far to see that the federal government is out of bounds.
As two federal judges press the agency for answers, the IRS is scrambling to cover their tails – but it’s simply too little, too late.
Our Constitution has survived domestic conflict, international war, and economic crisis – but there’s one thing it won’t survive much longer.
Fortunately, there’s a cure for government expansion – and another state is preparing to join the effort to amend our Constitution and protect liberty for future generations!
Follow our Twitter account and like us on Facebook to keep up on the latest news.
Thank you,
The Citizens for Self-Governance Team
P.S. Let your state legislator know you support a Convention of States to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government – sign our new petition http://conventionofstates.nationbuilder.com/petition!
Political swine
Every two years, we are bombarded with negative, mud-slinging electronic propaganda and street banners. Fortunately, electronic media ads disappear after the elections, but the banners remain...and remain...and remain...until the wind disperses them all over the state, creating a panorama of multicolored trash.
No wonder I tend to write in, "NONE OF THE ABOVE" on the ballot! Litterbug candidates do not deserve election or reelection if their trash sullies our state.
J-P. A. Maldonado
Prescott Valley
Unaccompanied minor illegal immigration crisis
As you may know, President Obama has asked Congress for $3.7 billion to deal with the situation. The problem with the Administration's request is that the lion's share of that money goes to the Department of Health and Human Service to place unaccompanied minors with family members in the U.S. It sends mixed messages to have the President claim that these children will be sent back to their home countries while asking for billions of dollars to do precisely the opposite.
In response to the President's request, I've introduced legislation that does several things to address the crisis. First, it amends current law to make it easier to send these kids to their home countries. Rather than placing children with family members in the U.S., my bill would require that they remain in the custody of the U.S., which would ensure that they are present for legal proceedings. The bill increases the numbers of immigration law judges so that these cases can be more quickly processed. Finally, the bill conditions foreign aid to Central American countries on their cooperation in this matter, and it increases penalties on human smugglers.
Until Congress passes legislation, there are several actions that President Obama can take, including accelerating cases and sending a clear and strong message to Central Americans that unaccompanied minors will be returned home. Without question, the President's unwillingness to do what's within his power is making this situation worse.
I believe that when parents in Central America, who spent thousands of dollars to get their child to the U.S., see that they're coming right back, you'll start to see the flow of accompanied minors subside. Until that starts to happen, I will continue to make this a priority.
U.S. Senator Jeff Flake
We do not want Obamacare!
We need your help. If everyone who reads this donates we can impact this primary season in a way never before seen in Arizona. The Alliance of Principled Conservatives has never wavered from our mission of stopping the Obama-Progressive-Liberal agenda in Arizona. We defined the Brewercrats. We called OBrewercare. And we have worked across this State emboldening the Grassroots and the Alliance has the attention of the opposition.
Your donation will make a difference because the Alliance knows how to deliver hard-hitting campaigns.
We are being heard - we do NOT want Obamacare.
We started the Tea Party because we do NOT want Obamacare.
AZ legislative districts passed resolutions across the entire state saying 'we do NOT want Obamacare.'
We now have primaries against the majority of the LegisTraitors because we do NOT want Obamacare.
When people want information about the 2014 elections they go to the Alliance. The same people who worked to oppose our referendum efforts are now working to keep the LegisTraitors. Help us to stop them.
Arizona is worth fighting for. Fight for Arizona - Join the Alliance: www.fightforarizona.com.
Alliance for Principled Conservatives
Christine Bauserman, Chair
Frank Antenori, Co-Chair
[email protected]
