Fighting fires

In the wake of one of the most devastating forest fire seasons, President Bush has proposed changes to forest management that would make it easier for the timber industry to cut down trees in fire-prone areas. The proposal is part of a new "Healthy Forests" initiative.

More than 5.9 million acres have burned in the western states this year-500,000 acres more than in the record-setting 2000 fire season.

After the 2000 fire season, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service developed a national fire plan, which supported controlled burns, thinning and fire preparedness programs. The Healthy Forests initiative builds on that plan.

Bush defended his initiative, which some critics fear will sharply increase logging and deforestation. "What the critics need to do is come and stand right where I stand ... and see first-- hand the effects of bad forest policy," Bush told a group of reporters in August at the Squires Peak fire area in Ruch, Ore. "And by the way, there's nothing wrong with people being able to earn a living off of effective forest management," he said.

- Kellie Lunney