[JohnA]

Thanks so much, stoat, for bringing this important issue
to FreeRepublic again.

Our information at Global Emergency Response is that
the IL-76 waterbomber issue should get to television
in the next couple of days and from there, who knows?

I caught the tail end of a DC committee meeting session
online today where the FS was being contratulated for
getting to 98% of the fires on time. The stats will show
that some small proportion of wildfires, say 5%, causes
95% of the damages.

Here's the latest, "Arson by Omission", a Ventura County
Reporter article from two reprint sources: http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/media/2004/news_20031218_usa.htm -
Global Fire Monitoring Center in Gemany, and http://www.desastres.org/ger/vcreportercom.htm

We're not counting Reps Rohrabacher's and Weldon's efforts out.

The IL-76 is by far and away the most powerful firefighting
appliance in the world and the worst-kept secret in
firefighting. To keep it from Americans is in breach of a
civil defence duty. Im' in Canada. Canada said it would
follow the US Forest Service lead on this airplane. By
following the US lead, Canada defaults to the failure
position and we have damages to show for it. While these
damages may not approach Socal's 23 lives and 3,495 homes
from October and November, 2003, they are still serious
enough to have begun reconsidering their options.

When bureaucrats dig in for a fight, they, unlike business,
have a guaranteed salary and pension/benefits scheme to
rely on. Businessmen such as those promoting the
Il-76 do not. The Forest Service knows this. Ag Secretaries
come and Ag Secretaries go but the bureaucrats survive.

[forester]

Ag Secretaries come and Ag Secretaries go but the bureaucrats survive.

Thanks for fixing the link guys. I find this whole situation deplorable. The USFS bureacrats have grounded the main tool that is used for fighting the large fires....what will it take to get congressional review of this agency? Another 1910 inferno where 3 million acres goes up in two days?

As a former USFS firefighter, I know what kind of people currently run this outfit. For them to take this action without a backup plan is incompetant at the least, and potentially criminal in the end.

[Stoat]

Hello JohnA,

Thanks very much for your great posts, and even more so for the great work that you and your company do. I wish that the USFS would develop an interest in achieving even a passing glance in the direction of sanity and coherence in terms of their wildfire fighting approach, but that appears to be far too much to ask. I suspect it will take another bad fire season with thousands of homes lost and hundreds dead before the public will really put some serious pressure on the USFS for real change.

I'm glad to hear that Rep. Rohrahacher and Rep. Weldon are still fighting the good fight. My apologies if I spoke presumptuously....it was a reflection of my overall disheartened attitude over this whole situation and of the sense of foreboding I feel regarding the upcoming fire season this year. I hope that they will be able to help set things right.

Re the TV broadcast, I'm wondering if there's any way that you can host a video clip of that TV event at your site, perhaps as an MPEG or AVI file that people can download? I don't live anywhere near Colorado and it looks like the only option that the TV station provides is for people to purchase a thirty dollar videotape from them.
I'm sure that you would have many people eager to see that footage all over the world, especially in light of the recent retirement of the bulk of the USFS firefighting fleet.

Thanks again for contributing your posts and I hope that you will continue to keep us updated :-)