After flying over Southern Idaho's charred sagebrush desert Monday, Gov. Butch Otter and Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo had harsh words for Idaho's federal landlords.
They didn't offer many specifics. Otter said the feds — paralyzed by what he called a regulatory "don't book" — moved too slowly.
We don't buy it. Facing tinder-dry conditions, and working with limited firefighting resources, the feds may well have been powerless to prevent the natural Murphy Complex Fire from blackening 653,000 acres southwest of Twin Falls. Firefighting doesn't lend itself to soundbite solutions. However, fire season does lend itself to the distracting politics of assessing blame.
Timeout on the blame game. Time for tough reality.
• We're in the heart of another long, unrelenting and frightening fire season. This summer could match 2000, Idaho's worst fire season in recent history. The fall's first snowstorm is weeks away.
• The long term offers little relief as well. Global warming threatens to bring the West more of what we're seeing this year: More drought, more parched range and forest, more searing summer weather.
• Climate change corresponds with a long-overdue attitudinal change to firefighting. The feds are abandoning their decades-old practice of trying to suppress all fires as quickly as possible. This approach strains limited resources, puts firefighters at unneeded risk — and has left public lands choked with trees and underbrush and vulnerable to catastrophic fire, such as the Murphy Complex Fire. The feds need to change their ways, but in the meantime, millions of acres remain at risk.
Severe fire seasons? Get used to it.
And remember, fire season unfolds under Nature's rules — rules that are especially harsh in 2007, and perhaps for years to come.
This is why the Murphy Fire — sparked by lightning on July 16 — morphed into unquestioned disaster. It burned through power lines, leaving the Duck Valley Indian Reservation without power for a week. It destroyed habitat for sage grouse, bull trout and big game. It killed livestock and scorched grazing land. The nation's largest wildfire is sure to draw the scrutiny of state political leaders.
Otter remains concerned that the feds failed to aggressively contain the fire when it was at a manageable 5,000 acres, and on Tuesday, spokesman Jon Hanian decried an "anemic" federal response to the power outage. Meanwhile, Craig and Crapo seemed to soften their positions a bit.
Craig doesn't engage in what spokesman Dan Whiting called "armchair" firefighting. But he does want more grazing, because he believes it will prevent rangeland from becoming susceptible to devastating fire.
Crapo went out of his way not to criticize fire managers Tuesday. Instead, he wants to discuss the future — for instance, he wonders if there's a better way to balance fire suppression against the preservation of historical artifacts and endangered species habitat. His intent isn't to simply bash the agencies, spokesman Lindsay Nothern said. "All that is going to do is fan more political flames."
Otter, Craig and Crapo have already jumped the fire line. The 2007 fire season is daunting enough; starting up the blame season doesn't help.
"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the board.
