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Some of you may remember the posts by Aunt B and yours truly about the interview/discussion with Lars Larson and the owner of the helicopter service, hired to supposedly battle the forest fires in Oregon.

Here is more of this from Sierra Times in an oped by J.J. Johnson

Oregon: Time to Fight Fire With Fire
By J.J. Johnson, Published 08. 4. 02 at 20:26 Sierra Time

We have received numerous postings from readers of the transcripted interview with an Helicopter Wildfire Fighter on the Lars Larson Show back on August 1.

There have also been requests that The Sierra Times review and expand on a previous challenge we made to all local communities concerning firefighting out west. With the recent legislative action by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Sierra Times believes that pointing fingers and calling congressmen is unproductive. More direct measures should be taken to fire the Timber Rock and other fires in the West.

In the interview, it was reported that the Carson Helicopter has a contract with the United States Forestry Service (USFS) to carry water via 9 aircraft flying on the Toolbox fire, Timbered Rock, and the Southbisquit Fire.

With the cooperation of the Oregon State Department of Forestry, a dry pond was found within striking distance of the fires, and water was being supply by an armada of water trucks. ".

We were just on the other side of the US Forest Service line and we were within their boundaries", said Mark Lindamood of Carson Helicopter. "So they came up [August 1] and shut the pond down and they gated it and prohibited trucks from coming in", he said. The apparent reason was lack of a permission request and the fact that what is called a "Dip Site Manager" was not on site.

This and other bureaucratic regulations and red tape from the USFS have damaged the ability to fight the fires effectively, threatening property, communities and even lives. As a result, Oregonians are being asked to contact their congressmen and complaint. Instead, we submit the following actions take place:

1) The Carson Helicopter company should immediately suspend any and all service for the United States Forestry Service. They should make it known their services will be available to any state or local agency dedicated to fire fighting.

2) All counties affected by the fires should declare a state of emergency, if they have not done so already. The emergency should include the power of the local authorities to use all means at its disposal to protect life and property in the area, and for the county's district attorneys to enforce such measures.

3) Oregon State Police, the State Department of Forestry and the Local county officers should immediately remove the fence installed by the USFS and provide protection for water trucks to the pond.

4) Helicopter transportation of water should resume, but under the jurisdiction of the Oregon State Department of Forestry. Any attempts to prevent the lawful duty of country officials should result in those people being taken into custody. Suspects can be held for at least 48 hours - while firefighting continues.

5) In the event of USFS not allowing flights, pilots should adhere to the FAA pilot regulations and file an injunction against the USFS to complain that their policies are placing lives in danger. County District Attorneys should be compelled to file injunctions against any attempt to prevent fighting wildfires by any other entity during a fire emergency. This would at least slow down the USFS long enough to let you get a hand on the fire.

6) Media should work covertly in order to review the work of federal fire-fighters. Sierra Times readers should volunteer their help, and water to the firefighters if and when needed in order to gain access and to ensure adequate fire fighting is in effect.

It seems the problem lies in the public 'giving' authority to federal folks to put out the forest fires under a myth this is actually the priority of the Forestry Service. Their goal is to maintain the bureaucracy.

In both Arizona and Colorado it has been shown that local authorities taking matters into their own hands is the best solution to fighting wildfires. County and state governments must take this matter seriously. When lives and property are at stake, there is not only a duty, but a responsibility to take action - against federal authority if necessary.

Nor should anti-logging or the Endangered Species Act (ESA) prohibit local residents, county governments, or state governments from taken action when needed. The South Dakota exemption proves that these types of regulations are hazardous to forests, wildlife and property. Quoting a letter from the Sierra Club and the Wilderness society on the matter of the Daschle amendment, ".The amendment would help to reduce hazardous fuel loads in a manner that protects communities and the benefits of recreation, clean water and fish and wildlife habitat on the Black Hills National Forest.". Needless to say this would work for other areas as well. So why wait for federal permission?

There will be some that will call these proposals extreme and even illegal. We are dealing with dangerous situations that demand immediate attention. Simply calling on Congressmen to take action requires a host of calls just to get attention (they're on summer break as well). The actions listed above are immediate and would put immediate attention on the situation. We are at a point where we believe federal forest agents do not want to push the envelope with local authorities. In this fire season alone, they have already been roundly criticized by governors and congressmen, there are two USFS employees currently in custody for being responsible for much of the burn acreage this year. Most important, we feel that no federal agency wants a standoff with others for wanting to fight a forest fire - not in this political season.

In closing, we would like to thank Lars Larson of KXL News Radio 750 AM in Portland and Carson Helicopter for bringing light to a grave situation. But the solution requires action be taken on the ground immediately. Simply complaining will not work. The western fires have reached a point where areas not ablaze are suffering from the impact of this fire season with increased ash and smoke in the atmosphere, and loss of revenue.

We cannot make this statement more clear: We are well beyond the time where we can depend on the federal government to battle the disasters out west. There are people, homes, and communities in peril. The time for action is now. If we allow federal regulations to prevent firefighting causing destruction of live and property, we will only have ourselves, and not the federal government to blame.

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I will be posting more from Aunt B re official US Floristry Circus anti fire fighing policies made into law during the last administration.

The more you peel back the ugly layers of the bs coming from the Floristry Circus, the more it becomes apparent that they love these large out of control fires as part of their ecological. Then they have written policies to insure the so called natural events of fires.