[editor-surveyor]

"I am convinced that there are those with the Forest Service that wanted the fire to burn."

The fire was started by a forest service employee!

---

By JENNIFER HAMILTON, Associated Press Writer

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (AP) - A U.S. Forest Service employee was charged Sunday with starting the fire that scorched more than 100,000 acres in the Pike National Forest and destroyed at least 22 homes.

Forestry technician Terry Barton, 38, admitted starting a campfire while patrolling the forest to enforce a fire ban, said Bill Leone of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

She said she started burning personal papers within a designated campfire ring, where fires normally would be allowed, and then tried to put out the blaze.

"She attempted to suppress the fire but it grew," Leone said.

Barton initially reported the fire, but an investigation led the Forest Service to question what she was saying, Leone said.

Barton was charged with setting fire to timber in the national forest, damaging federal property in excess of $100,000 and making false statements to investigators, Leone said.

If convicted, Barton could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. She was arrested Sunday morning; it was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney.

She was scheduled to make an initial court appearance in a Denver federal court Monday.

"I want to begin by saying, this is one of the hardest announcements I've had to make in my career," said Rick Cables, regional forester for the Rocky Mountain Region for the U.S. Forest Service.

"I'm shocked and with a lot of other people, in a state of disbelief," Cables said. "I'm saddened to say that one of our employees has admitted to starting the Hayman fire."

Firefighters gained ground Sunday on the wildfire that had burned within 40 miles of Denver city limits since it was started June 8, threatening southwestern suburbs.

With the blaze about 35 percent contained, about 5,400 people remained out of their homes. It was one of seven fires burning in the state Sunday.

Scattered puffs of smoke could be seen on mountainsides once totally obscured by smoke.

"Hopefully, this fire is going to now stay essentially where it is at," said Bobby Kitchens, a fire information officer. "We don't expect to see any more significant acreage gains."

Sheriff's deputies escorted some residents to retrieve belongings and assess damage, but didn't allow them to stay. Frustrated residents waited at the command post, trying to learn when they'll be able to return for good.

"It started to get to be a long period because one of the big things is I don't like eating out. I miss cooking at home," said Bob James, 46, who has been out of his home north of Lake George since Tuesday.

Another blaze flared in southwest Colorado and forced the evacuation of more than 330 homes. The latest fire had burned more than 20,000 acres in the San Juan National Forest by Sunday morning.

In addition to the evacuations, residents of 450 homes were told to be ready to leave. One cabin was destroyed, and fire managers were trying to determine whether others had burned.

[Carry_Okie]

What I want to know is if Terry Barton is a member of FSEEE (Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics). If she is, then they had better consider her actions as likely to be intentional and begin a thorough discovery of that organization. This could be only the beginning.

[brityank]

The wildfires that have ravaged the West in recent years have focused national attention on the condition of our forests. Why are they so susceptible to severe fires? And how can we prevent catastrophe? In Forests on the Sierra Nevada, George Gruell examines these treasured woodlands through repeat photography: rephotographing sites depicted in historical photographs to compare past vegetation--its distribution and condition--to present. The paired black-and-white photographs document natural and human-wrought changes in the Sierran ecosystem during the past 150 years--from the varied and generally open-canopy habitats of early European-American settlement days to the dense, declining forests of today.

Gruell's comparisons show just how much damage that the misguided policies the ecoterrorists have wrought in the past few decades. The 'roadless initiatives' will create more conflagrations that they will use to keep human activities out of the forests and stuff us all into 'sustainable communities'.

[kitchen]

Notice that federal employee Mz. Barton first felt she was above the law, by starting a fire during a ban. Then her response is to lie and set off a manhunt for the imaginary perpetrator.

And people wonder why nobody trusts the feds!

I'm inclined to believe that in this case the fed should be 100% liable for all damages and expenses. Let's watch how Gov. "empty suit" Owens mishandles yet another public issue.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[thucydides]

The claim that the Forest Service employee was burning a letter from her estranged husband in the confines of a fire ring and thereby set off a huge blaze doesn't seem credible. Perhaps she needed a story that sounded better than just plain malicious mischief or pyromania. Or could it be a case of government bureaucrats thinking setting off huge fires would definitely get them budget and pay raises? Sorry to be so cynical, but after all, the Clinton administration filled many of these government posts.

[blackie]

Stop the attacks by the wacko, extreme left-wing, enviro-nazis terrorist's on our Freedoms !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

Molon Labe !!

[mafree]

Oh, so we now have tree overpopulation eh? Preposterous.

[AuntB]

I was looking for this. I heard it on ABC radio news last night at 11:30, and haven't heard much else. I hope it gets it's own post. Thanks e-s!

[MaeWest]

BUMP!

[mrustow]

Thanks for the ping. I know exactly where you're heading, and I'm right there with you with my tinfoil hat. The government's environmental overseers are themselves loony, and they are burning down the asylum.

This reminds me of the other story you alerted me to a few months back, about the federal environmental workers who spread phony traces of endangered species, in order to get yet another huge area put under environmental lockdown. (And whose bosses refused to release their names, much less prosecute them!)

[alaskanfan]

Like logs on a campfire, the tree-swollen forests, tightly packed with Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, are feeding the out-of-control wildfires as they race across the state from Durango to Denver.

So thick are the trees that the flames are racing from treetop to treetop, a phenomenon known as "crowning." Had the trees been spaced farther apart, said Mr. Bosworth in an interview, the fires would have been forced to travel along the ground, slowing the spread of the flames and giving firefighters more time to contain them.

Mr. Bosworth wants to solve the problem by thinning the forests, meaning he wants to remove trees by cutting them down. First, however, he'll have to get past the nation's powerful environmental movement, whose successful opposition to logging on public lands has helped create the tree-dense forests now fueling the wildfires.

As eight wildfires whipped through Colorado last week, the debate over how to reduce fire danger also reignited. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, last week accused environmental groups of contributing to the state's fire disaster by opposing recent efforts to thin the Pike and San Isabel forests, where the so-called Hayman fire is now burning.

By far the largest of the Colorado wildfires, the Hayman fire has burned 102,000 acres, but another day of cool, mild weather yesterday helped firefighters bring it to 30 percent containment.

Environmental lawsuits delayed the project, which could have reduced the damage being done by the massive wildfire, said Mr. Tancredo.

Last week, he proposed legislation that would make the Pike and San Isabel "charter forests," operating under simplified rules and more local input.

"It's that kind of thing we're dealing with here — the idiocy of bureaucrats and environmental extremists, who don't want any kind of management in the forest at all," Mr. Tancredo said. "They'd rather see the whole thing burn, then start over again in 100 years."

Environmentalists scoffed at his accusations. "I would submit that the weather might have had something to do with it," said Ted Zukoski, staff attorney for the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies in Boulder, Colo., whose group opposed the Pike and San Isabel forest project.

But he and other environmentalists agree that they have opposed thinning proposals for several reasons. Many see such projects as loosely disguised attempts to revive the nation's moribund timber industry by feeding it more trees.

Mr. Bosworth said any timber industry left in Colorado was probably beyond reviving.

"If someone thinks we're proposing this for the timber industry — well, there's not even an industry for us to propose it for," he said. "There's not even a sawmill left in Colorado."

Thank you tree huggers for putting so many Americans out of a job.

CAN I SUPERSIZE THAT FOR YOU SIR!!!!

It just doesn't have the same dignity as having a real job in a renewable resource.

Environmental groups also argue that the abundance of timber can be blamed on misguided fire-suppression efforts, like the Smokey Bear campaign. Many argue that wildfires should be welcomed, not suppressed, and allowed to burn unhindered except where they threaten lives.

"Decades of fire suppression have resulted in a build-up of flammable brush that can easily catch fire," said the Sierra Club last year in a report on forest fires. "Fire is a natural part of the forest and has an important role to play, just like sunshine and rain."

Does this mean that the environmentalistists are willing to take responsability for this new policy?

When I fought fire in one of the most undermanned districts in the U.S.F.S.(Cobalt Ranger District in central Idaho), we didn't seem to have these problems.