Pearce and Forest Service clash as Little Bear Fire rages
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As firefighters battle the Little Bear Fire that has destroyed at least 36 structures in the Ruidoso area, Congressman Steve Pearce (R-New Mexico) and an official with the US Forest Service had a heated exchange over the agency’s handling of the wildfire that as of Sunday afternoon had charred more than 26,000 acres in the mountainous terrain of south-central New Mexico.
The Little Bear Fire started back on June 4, due to a lightning strike in the Lincoln National Forest. The fire was not snuffed out completely and by Friday it had spread to Ruidoso, forcing the evacuations of hundreds of people as the blaze grew to cover roughly 40 square miles.
U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, speaking to Lincoln National Forest Supervisor Robert Trujillo, criticizes the Forest Service's handling of the opening days of the Little Bear Fire. (Courtesy, Jim Kalvelage/Ruidoso News)
From the Ruidoso News:
The forest’s Smokey Bear District Ranger Dave Warnack said fire officials made the decision.
“Those are the folks with the years of experience managing wildfires,” [Lincoln National Forest Supervisor Robert]
Trujillo added. “And my job is to support those decisions and to give them the tools and techniques to take care of this fire. Right now, Mr. Congressman, we have an active fire out there and I don’t see that this conversation is very productive, with all due respect.”But Pearce pounded back.
“If the decisions made at that point could have forced all this, it is productive to say ‘Who made the decisions?’ I think its extraordinarily important,” Pearce said. “We’re seeing this occur over and over and over again, and at some point, somebody has to make a decision that we get more active earlier.”
Pearce said his constituents expect him to ask the Forest Service such questions.
“They’re worried about their homes. They’re worried about the economy of this town. They’re worried about their futures. You’re damn right they’ve got a right to ask those questions and I’ve got a responsibility to ask it here when I get the room.”
Click here to read the entire story.
Pearce has been a longtime critic of the wildfire tactics of forest officials.
Just three days before the Little Bear Fire started, he issued a news release pointing to the Whitewater-Baldy Fire in the Gila National Forest that is still burning, saying the “US Forest Service bureaucracy in Washington … caters to extreme interest groups that stop responsible forest management. Because the Forest Service refuses to permit logging in our forests, they are overcrowded with trees that go up in flames during droughts, and invite massive conflagrations like we see in the Gila. It would be far easier to thin the forest conscientiously in advance than resort to emergency fire suppression, which risks lives and property.”
During a similar debate last September, Bryan Bird of the environmental organization WildEarth Guardians responded by saying, “Logging is not going to change the weather. It’s the fundamental bottom line there. All the forests in the Southwest have fire danger.”
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As for details in the Little Bear Fire, as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday (June 10):
*Forest Service lists the fire as zero percent contained
*144 firefighters were battling the blaze
*20 engines, 6 helicopters and 2 bulldozers were being manned
*According to the incident report, “An unusual firefighting tactic is being used on the southwest corner of the [fire]. Snow making machines at Ski Apache Resort are being utilized to wet down fuels, slowing the spread of the fire.”
*The terrain difficulty is listed as “steep and rugged”
*New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez was touring the site Sunday, as was Pearce
Update: Gov. Martinez addressed about 500 evacuees in Ruidoso Sunday, telling them, “The state has committed any or all its resources here.” Click here to get the story from the Ruidoso News.
Jim Scarantino alerts us to this Facebook page with updates from residents about the Little Bear Fire: http://www.facebook.com/groups/169877396476143/170114563119093/?notif_t=group_activity
Here are some photos posted on social media sites, including this one from Frank Jensen Jr. via Ian Schwartz of KRQE-TV:
Little Bear Fire taken by Frank Jensen Jr.
Little Bear Fire, taken by Jessica Garate, KRQE-TV, June 10
Ruidoso residents tour home destroyed home by the Little Bear Fire -- courtesy Rudy Gutierrez-El Paso Times
Photo by Frank O'Dell, June 10, Little Bear Fire
Little Bear Fire, June 8, taken by Kristal Armendariz
From Alisha Trujillo
Posted under Capitol Report.
Tags: Bryan Bird, Little Bear Fire, Ruidoso News, Steve Pearce, Susana Martinez, US Forest Service, Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fire, WildEarth Guardians
8:59 pm on June 10th, 2012
Typical right wing know-nothing Republidiots spewing their cult-driven lunacy in the face of science, reason, education, and experience.
These Republican idiots *all* need to be dragged from office so that the adults can get on with the job at hand without their petty cult-driven stupidity.
10:05 pm on June 10th, 2012
If you had friends who had lost their homes over this incompetency, I don’t think you would be complaining. This fire could have been stopped, dead in its tracks on Wed or Thurs. The forest service chose NOT to do so. This isn’t political, it is competence and human decency.
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
10:54 pm on June 10th, 2012
My what an interesting argument you have there. So full of facts, evidence, and information about us so-called “cult driven idiots”.
And it’s spelled, nasty*. But I guess you wouldn’t know that having only graduated the 3rd grade before deciding to make a post on the internet.
/typicalliberalscumpostingmorefailontheinternetbecausethey’redesperateforascapegoat
Gtfo.
11:07 pm on June 10th, 2012
If the tree hugging liberals would allow some logging in the forests then there would be less fuel for the fire and less destruction. DUH!! No on ever said let’s go cut down every tree in the forest. Its the idiot liberals that have allowed the over growth in all the national forests that have fueled all the wild fires in recent years and every year they seem to get worse and the fires do too. Let’s throw all the liberals out and get some one in there that cares about humans and the world together
9:26 am on June 11th, 2012
Smart ass liberal,socialist enviro idiot ( Nastry republicans ? ) . How about you and yours getting your ass;es out and fight the fires ,instead of sitting around sucking up kool-aid and bad mouthing folks that have to contend with the after effects of ignorant socialist decisions , Better still go back to your ghetto fool.
11:24 am on June 11th, 2012
Good grief, these Republican know-nothings need to get the hell out of the way and let the professionals do their jobs. Always there has to be right wing lunacy thrown in to every job that professionals must do, making it that much more difficult to do the job.
If these right wing politicians looking to make names for themselves by standing in the way want to pretend to be fire fighters, let them apply and undergo the tests like the professionals do, then we’ll see how full of dung they are.
Those who can, do. Those who can not are Republicans.
2:34 pm on June 11th, 2012
Funny how everyone becomes an expert on what to do instead of coming up with ideas “That work” obviously the way they are being handled at present is not working. Yeah by all means lets keep doing what were doing. This is what happens when we try to manage our New Mexico lands from a cushy washington office. I think we need people who understand land management not appointed political officals who think they know how to do the job. Pierce is right people who make these decisions that affect so many people not to mention the wildlife in these areas should be held accountable meaning fired[no pun intended] or held up to criminal charges, frankly I’m tired of turning on the news and seeing New Mexico burn!
11:43 am on June 13th, 2012
Republican or Democrat, I would venture a guess and say those citizens who have lost their home and property to this fire don’t really care either way. Mr. Trujillo states that fire officials who, in Mr. Trujillo’s words, “Those are the folks with the years of experience managing wildfires,” made the decision to manage the outbreak of the fire the way they did. Perhaps, those folks with all those years of experience have been approaching these types of outbreaks incorrectly, maybe? I mean, they, the fire officials Mr. Trujillo refers to, knew of the extreme draught conditions in the forest they manage and they also had access to weather forecasts which probably indicated windy conditions for the weekend. While not a fan of Congressman Pearce I think he is correct in saying he has an obligation to question forest service fire management methods when, perhaps, this conflagration may have been avoided had the Fire Officials Mr. Trujillo refers to made a different decision to attack the onset of the fire aggressively given the state of the forest and the weather forecast for the area. But hindsight, well you know the rest.
12:30 pm on June 17th, 2012
All these liberal whiners who are spewing bile at us deny facts. Facts are: because of liberal interference, led by former S.Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, fuel removal is banned throughout the west, EXCEPT FOR, dah dah, that’s right, S. DAKOTA !!!! The liberals love the fact that their cronies in the congress passed this one, and don’t care about the criminal exception Dash-hole carved out. It is the same liberal criminality at work in the now-failed attempt to put the oil companies out of business by declaring a lizard more important than people. Had there been lizards in S. Dakota, I’m sure Dash-hole’s successors in congress would have carved out an exception there again. Always corruption among liberals, just look at our disgusting president. And I bristle at the stupid assertion that Republicans must get out of the way and let the professional firefighers do the job. I know a lot of professional firefighters and not one of them likes liberalism or the stupid advocates thereof. Liberals gave us all these western forest fires, just like libeeralism gives us all the rest of the evil things that happen to this country. It is always because of the toxic effects of liberals and liberalism.
11:27 pm on June 30th, 2012
Pearce spent his miderly career in Congress opposing money for air tankers, opposing any funds for traing, equipment or personnel to fight fires – and now he whines about voters being burned out.
He takes responsibility for none of his actions. He’s useless.