Here is an article from Fox News.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
LOS ANGELES — City officials in San Bernardino, Calif., say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency's concerns about endangered species delayed a federally funded fire prevention program for seven years and led directly to the disastrous fires there in October.
According to city officials, philosophical problems among some biologists, environmentalists and other agencies delayed approved measures to prevent fires from being enacted.
City officials also claim that they set aside $500,000 for a program meant to thin a number of trees in problem areas identified in a 1995 survey, but not one square foot of forestry was thinned.
According to a congressional investigation, more than half of all federal projects proposed to reduce the literal fuel to the fires never get implemented, including several projects that may have limited the scope of this fall's California wildfires. Those fires burnt 750,000 acres, destroyed 3,640 homes, killed 22 people and countless wildlife and are estimated to have cost $10 billion in damage.
Now, an agency supervisor admits some of his employees may have stopped several fire prevention efforts because of their environmental philosophy.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
LOS ANGELES — City officials in San Bernardino, Calif., say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency's concerns about endangered species delayed a federally funded fire prevention program for seven years and led directly to the disastrous fires there in October.
According to city officials, philosophical problems among some biologists, environmentalists and other agencies delayed approved measures to prevent fires from being enacted.
City officials also claim that they set aside $500,000 for a program meant to thin a number of trees in problem areas identified in a 1995 survey, but not one square foot of forestry was thinned.
According to a congressional investigation, more than half of all federal projects proposed to reduce the literal fuel to the fires never get implemented, including several projects that may have limited the scope of this fall's California wildfires. Those fires burnt 750,000 acres, destroyed 3,640 homes, killed 22 people and countless wildlife and are estimated to have cost $10 billion in damage.
Now, an agency supervisor admits some of his employees may have stopped several fire prevention efforts because of their environmental philosophy.
