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Card Consolidation Credit Debt The wildfires that burned 750,000 acres in Southern California over the past week are "largely irrelevant" to the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative, a research scientist who spent his career studying California shrublands said Tuesday.

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Credit Union "The evidence is overwhelming that Southern California is an anomaly, sociologically as well as ecologically," said Jon Keeley, a U.S. Geological Survey fire scientist.

Keeley said he is worried by the many references to Southern California in the continuing debate over Healthy Forests legislation passed by the U.S. Senate last week. To link the California fires to the forest health issue is "misguided, " Keeley said. Less than 10 percent of the land burned in those fires was forested. level brush that carries fires through the canopy and burns intensely and quickly.

Merchant Credit Guide Co While historical data "show very clearly" that fire suppression has effectively excluded wildfires - and increased forest fuels and the fire hazard - in Western conifer forests, the evidence is "exactly the opposite" in Southern California, Keeley said in a telephone interview from his office in Sequoia National Park.

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Apply Online For Credit Card "Past fire suppression is not to blame for causing large shrubland wildfires, nor has it proven effective in halting them," he said.

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By Card Credit Debt Debt Guide Even though governments at all levels have pumped ever-more money into fighting Southern California's chaparral fires, they have not been effective "by any means," according to Keeley.

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Credit Repair In fact, fire suppression likely will never be effective in that ecosystem, he said. And thinning the chaparral would have no real effect.

Active Credit Credit Guide Keeley said he is worried by the many references to Southern California in the continuing debate over Healthy Forests legislation passed by the U.S. Senate last week.

Credit Score To link the California fires to the forest health issue is "misguided," Keeley said. Less than 10 percent of the land burned in those fires was forested.

Bad Car Credit Guide Loan Ninety percent of the burned area was shrubland - a thicket of eye-level brush that carries fires through the canopy and burns intensely and quickly.

Bad Credit Loan "But fuels are not the problem in Southern California," Keeley said. "Urban sprawl is, coupled with the Santa Ana winds that come every autumn."

Credit Definition Derivative No fire climate in the United States is as hostile as is Southern California's, he said. "You can't get any worse than this, and the same conditions occur every year."

Bad Credit Mortgage And while Keeley said the Healthy Forests Initiative has the potential to lessen the wildfire danger in Western conifer forests, "there is much less reason for optimism in Southern California."

The Insider Guide To Credit "Fires in conifer forests are easier to suppress," he said. "In the chaparral shrublands, you never have a low-intensity surface fire. All you have are canopy fires, and in autumn, you have canopy fires driven by 50-60 mph winds."

Business Credit Card In recent studies, Keeley and C.J. Fotheringham of the University of California at Los Angeles analyzed historical data for counties dominated by shrublands prone to relatively frequent high-intensity wildfires - from Monterey County in the north to San Diego County in the south.

Banker Complete Credit Guide Their findings: Although firefighting is critical to protect homes and communities, it does not prevent large, destructive wildfires.

Credit Card Application Last week, for example, the hot Santa Ana winds greatly increased the intensity and spread of the fires, Keeley said. There was nothing firefighters could do - or ever will be able to do - in the face of Santa Ana winds.

Credit Guide Managing The researchers were surprised, in fact, to find that since 1910, chaparral fires have become more frequent - paralleling population growth in Southern California.

Credit Card Offer Large-scale, intense wildfires were equally common in the years before widespread fire suppression as they are today, Keeley said Tuesday.

Merchant Credit Guide Company Southern California's wildfires are not the result of a buildup of fuel, he added. The amount of fuel has not changed.

Bad Credit Humans have, however, increased the frequency of fires in some parts of Southern California, he said, because so many of the big fall fires are human-caused.

Collection Collection Complete "More than 95 percent of all our fires are started by people, either intentionally or by carelessness," Keeley said.

Credit Counseling Rather than a Healthy Forests Initiative, Southern California needs a public education campaign, the scientist said.

Complete Credit Guide Higher "One of the most important things is for fire management agencies to educate the public that there are limitations to what they can do in the face of high winds and fire," Keeley said. "When these Santa Ana winds push flames, there's nothing much firefighters can do other than to evacuate people and try to control the periphery.

Chase Credit Card "On top of that, land planning agencies need to take fire into account when they plan for development. They need to consciously try and consolidate development and reduce the amount of interface between urban areas and wildlands."

Complete Credit Guide Hedging Some strategically placed fuel treatments might help firefighters, Keeley said, but they will not stop chaparral crown fires.

Bad Credit Home Loan "If you reduced the amount of fuels right at the urban interface, you would at least provide safer access for fire suppression forces," he said. "Right now, we have areas where firefighters can't even get close to the fire.

Bad Credit Personal Loan "They don't even have a fighting chance."

Credit Score Guide By Sherry Devlin
Missoulian - 11/5/2003

Topic: Fire

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