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Department of the Interior **NEWS RELEASE** Contact: Wendell G. Peacock, Incident Information
Officer
Chadeen Palmer, Public Information Officer Date: September 11, 2002 2 p.m. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Prescribed fires planned for Fort Apache, BIA [Whiteriver, Arizona] -- The Fort Apache Agency and Bureau of Indian Affairs plan to be especially active with their ongoing fuels treatments in the coming months, according to George Leech, Fort Apache Agency Training Officer. The efforts are intended to reduce the hazard of devastating wildland fires in areas of heavy fuels built up over decades of fire suppression, a condition prevalent throughout the country. "As soon as the burning conditions meet prescription, that is, when the fuels dry out enough and the temperatures come down and the relative humidity rises to the right level, our window of opportunity opens," he explained. Prescribed burn plans already in place and others being finalized will guide the treatment activities. Prescribed fire is the most efficient treatment, fiscally and physically, but a combination of alternating fire, thinning and logging has proven to be very successful. The prescribed fire program averages about 30,000 acres a year on the Reservation, but fire officials would prefer that figure be doubled. Major factors to be considered are weather and air quality. One location officials consider a high priority for prescribed burning is the area south and west of Show Low, Pinetop-Lakeside and McNary. Apache firefighters' burnout operations in Cottonwood Canyon have been widely credited for keeping the Rodeo-Chediski Fire from entering those communities. |