May 17, 2000

Burn ban causing problems in central Washington

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A federal ban on forest burning could backfire, some Wenatchee National Forest and Yakama Indian officials say.

The 30-day nationwide ban was announced Monday because of catastrophic wildfires that grew from smaller fires set by forestry crews trying to prevent larger blazes in Arizona and New Mexico.

The ban, which applies to national forests, parks and many Indian reservations, has halted burns on at least 2,400 acres in the Naches Ranger District and 1,800 acres on the Yakama reservation.

Ralph Sampson Jr. of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Forest Service officials said the ban was imposed during a brief period in which conditions allow a safe, low-level burn.

Preventive burns are started to rid forests of high levels of flammable debris.

"The idea is to use fire to prevent fire, use it on your terms to prevent it on nature's terms," said Paul Hart, spokesman for the Wenatchee National Forest.

"We take the punch out of wildfires," Sampson said.

George Marcott, Naches district fire management officer, said the ban will create major setbacks to his program. He has already burned 1,000 acres in the Wenatchee forest this year.

"By the time this hold is over, the burning window will be over," Marcott said. "Our weather conditions are still rather damp."

Because of the federal ban, Marcott has canceled plans to burn about 600 acres of land west of Yakima, including 300 acres of logging slash about two miles east of Rimrock Lake. Authorities had planned to also burn heavy natural debris about 11 miles south of the lake.

Federal officials have been criticized for the preventative fires set in national parks that spawned deadly firestorms in New Mexico and Arizona. The fires have destroyed at least 260 homes and forced the evacuation of 25,000 people. Nearly a dozen Wenatchee forest workers are on the fire lines.

Sampson, who oversees prescribed burns on the 1.3-million acre Yakama reservation, said the fires got out of control because they were started too late in the season.