Friday, August 30, 2013

Letter to the Editor: About Fire Management

   Dear Sierra Sentinel:

   I've read in a lot of places that many people feel the Rim Fire was mismanaged from the 1st day. As a retired firefighter, I'd like to clear something up.

   I don't think any of the criticisms were meant for the firefighters on the lines. They work their butts off and put their lives on the line.

   What I do believe, is that fires, especially those in the USFS, are mis-managed at upper lever management. Both politics and future budgets, personal belief in fire being a good thing and lack of college management training to make a good decision quickly are all factors.

   You have to remember that most management employees at USFS came from forest ranger status, and not Administrative Colleges.

   My hats go off to all of the firefighters  who do nothing but take orders from the higher echelon and I'm sure you feel the same way. They are the ones who try to save our forests.

   Will the USFS ever learn from a drastic fire like this? Hard to say, but unlikely. But if they had brought in the tankers on the first day, the fire would have been out and the $50 million could have been spent elsewhere.

   We would also still have the Stanislaus National Forest and all of Yosemite!

   Pete in Copper
       

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe folks are acting like this is their first forest fire! C'mon! Ya'll can't wait to pull out your finger and start the blame game.
Unless your in the room privy to the actual USFS decision making process and have sccess to all intell, equipment, and fire fighters, I'd like to see these Monday Morning QB's get back to the sideline.
And especially a former fire fighter. Who should know better.

Anonymous said...

Preventitive burning goes a long way to curb fire disasters like this one. The Stanislaus FS has its head in sand on many things, and it would be reasonable to assume that's where it is on taking preventative fire action throughout the forest.