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Show Forest Service plans controlled area burning The annual spring burning program is now underway on the National Forests in Utah, Nevada, . Idaho and Wyoming according to Doug Bird, USDA Forest Service Regional Director of Aviation and Fire Management. This year, the Region will intentionally burn several thousand acres of forest and rangeland, using "planned" ignitions, to reduce fire hazards, benefit wildlife, and increase production of livestsock forage. Planned ignitions are those actually ac-tually started by Forest Service personnel according to a predetermined procedure under prescribed burning conditions. Ideal conditions allow the fire to remove the intended fuels without damaging other elements of the resource and the smoke to disipate without impacting local communities com-munities and widlerness. "Many prescribed fires are designed to remove heavy residues left after logging," Bird said. "However, more and more, we are using prescribed fire to . benefit livestock and wildlife by converting old, decadent brush and aspen areas to healthy foraging areas." Prescribed burns are planned on most National Forests throughout the region. According to Bird, "Fire is an integral part of our natural environment. en-vironment. It was here before man and was instrumental in creating many of the vegetative relationships relation-ships and arrangements that existed 100 years ago." Research, however, has demonstrated that man's presence and use of the resources have significantly altered the natural rate of fire recurrence, as well as changed the vegetative makeup of our forests and rangelands. "We are approaching a time when major, catastrophic wildfires cannot be suppressed," Bird adds. "Fuels are accumulating at an alarming rate. Our only recourse is to accelerate the use of prescribed fire during favorable burning conditions." The prescribed fire management program also includes the use of unplanned ignitions in Wildernesses. Wilder-nesses. Unplanned ignitions are those resulting from lightning. They may be allowed to burn under supervision if they start in an area where a Fire Management plan has determined that fire would be beneficial under specific conditions. An ignition at a time and location outside a predetermined prescription would result in immediate im-mediate suppression. |