Decades of over-logging and fire suppression set the stage
for deadly, destructive forest fires throughout the West.
Magazine
March 6, 1995
It's not a fluke, it's not just the drought, and it's not careless smokers. Decades of all-out logging and all-out fire suppression torched Yellowstone in 1988, ignited the fatal Colorado fire last summer, and set the stage for the thousands of fires in between.
Feature
Sidebar
Peter M. Leschak reminisces about firefighting in his book
Hellroaring: The Life and Times of a Fire Bum.
The trauma caused by super-hot fires continues long after
the flames are put out.
Quotes from Stephen J. Pyne and Bruce Babbitt acknowledge
the need to change attitudes toward fire.
A report by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration blames Forest Service and BLM "indifference" and
"willful safety violations" for deaths of 14 firefighters in
Colorado.
Quote from smokejumper Kevin Erickson depicts dramatic
scene as fire overcomes 14 firefighters in the South Canyon Fire in
Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig proposes a bill to give fast-track
approval to timber sales in forests at "high risk" for fire
danger.
Seeing Yellowstone by snowmobile is understandably
entertaining.
Essays
Former firefighter Louise Wagenknecht says the rush at
firefighting is as powerful as any drug.
Perspective
Alaska Republican Don Young, new chairman of the House
Resource Committee, denounces environmentalism and offers his own
conservative philosophy.
Dear Friends
Odds and ends; change of address advice
News
Activists face arrest for protesting Cove-Mallard timber
sale.
Cyanide from a defunct gold mill has contaminated Jan and
David Zimmerman's well water.
A Forest Service plan to close roads made by all-terrain
vehicles provokes angry reaction from ATV users.
Former Interior Secretary James Watt is indicted by a
federal grand jury for lying to Congress and obstructing an
investigation of fraud.
The winter influx of snowmobiles into Yellowstone creates
problems.
Arches National Park uses pilot program to measure how
many people are too many people at Delicate Arch.
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe seeks to harvest troublesome sea
lions.
The Supreme Court refuses to overturn Montana's
"hunter-harassment" law.
Opinion
Formerly powerful California Democrats George Miller and
Henry Waxman are lost in the new, Republican Washington.
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