Free Republic

The U.S. Forest Service estimates that dead stands in the Creek fire contain 2,000 tons of fuel per acre. As of Saturday, the fire had charred more than 196,000 acres, destroyed 365 structures and was threatening 14,000 more in the vicinity of Big Creek, Huntington Lake and Shaver Lake. Firefighters don’t expect to contain it until mid-October. For those who have studied the potential fire effects of the vast beetle kill, the Creek fire is a harbinger. One of hundreds of major blazes to erupt in this record-breaking fire season in California, the Creek fire has underscored the urgency of...

As Matt Kirwan walks through Maryland’s Blackwater National Refuge, his rubber boots begin to squish. With each step the land beneath him turns from dry ground to increasingly soggy mud. The trees around him go from tall and full of leaves or needles to short, bare and pale white. Partway out, ankle deep in water, Kirwan stops. “At this point we’ve transitioned from being in the forest, to actually being in a full-fledged marsh,” explains the Virginia Institute of Marine Science ecologist. “This ground is now too salty and too wet to support living trees.” Kirwan is standing in the...

WASHINGTON - AMERICA'S newspaper industry, including some of its biggest and most trusted names, is fighting for survival. Troubles at The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Seattle Post-Intelligencer pre-date the current financial crisis, but their precarious state has added urgency to the industry's frantic search for sustainable new business models. The Atlantic magazine reports in this month's edition that The New York Times will find itself facing debts of US$400 million (S$600 million) by May, with only US$46 million cash in hand, and no access to more funds because its debt carries junk status. In one obvious sign of...

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) - In the mountains of Southern California, it's the new sound of summer: the whine of a chain saw followed by the whoosh and thud of a falling tree. Logging crews are moving through neighborhoods and across densely forested hillsides, racing to cut as many dead and dying trees as they can before the area erupts in flames. It's a battle no one expects to win this year - and perhaps not anytime soon. "We have an extremely hazardous situation out there even though we've made a lot of progress," said San Bernardino County Fire...

John just said a station employee's wife just called in from the Issaquah Costco asking if her husband wanted an autographed Algore book. She said The tree and Tipper are sitting there and there are only a couple people there to buy books. Bwahahahahah. I thought this was a "best seller." They have another signing tonight at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle. That should draw a little better among Seattle's Lefties.