Forest Fires United States

Summer fires torched more than 4.3 million acres of America's parks and forests, and now the National Arbor Day Foundation wants public help in replacing the trees. As part of its drive, the nonprofit organization will plant 10 trees in a fire-wounded forest on behalf of anyone who pays $10 to become a foundation member. Membership contributions may be sent to Forest Trees, National Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Ave., Nebraska City, Neb., 68410.

Last summer's catastrophic wildfire season laid bare nearly 7 million acres of Western land and also exposed a harsh truth: The manner in which wildfires have been fought for decades and the way forest supervisors have gone about preventing them simply do not work. Now change might be in the offing. On Monday at the Western Governors' Conference that begins here today, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton and Agriculture Secretary Ann M.

Signaling a likely reversal of Reagan Administration policy, Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. said Friday that he has urged the White House to restore more than $140 million in federal funding to fight forest fires that start on public lands. The issue has been a matter of contention since the cost of fighting last summer's massive blazes soared to unprecedented levels, burdening federal coffers and prompting suggestions that state and local authorities pick up some of the tab.

Signaling a likely reversal of Reagan Administration policy, Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. said Friday that he has urged the White House to restore more than $140 million in federal funding to fight forest fires that start on public lands. The issue has been a matter of contention since the cost of fighting last summer's massive blazes soared to unprecedented levels, burdening federal coffers and prompting suggestions that state and local authorities pick up some of the tab.

A federal advisory panel, concluding a high-level review of the way the nation fights its forest fires, recommended Thursday that government policy be clarified to ensure that fewer naturally caused fires are allowed to burn unchallenged. Until the policy can be revised, a moratorium on the current "let it burn" strategy should be imposed to require fire managers to combat every fire that erupts in national parks and wilderness areas, the panel said.

The White House confirmed Tuesday that the 16-year-old federal conservation policy known as "let burn"--in which most lightning-caused fires in national parks and federal forest preserves were allowed to burn out by themselves--had been overturned for the remainder of the 1988 fire season. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater noted that the "let burn" policy had been abruptly changed in late July after Interior Secretary Donald P.

Last summer's catastrophic wildfire season laid bare nearly 7 million acres of Western land and also exposed a harsh truth: The manner in which wildfires have been fought for decades and the way forest supervisors have gone about preventing them simply do not work. Now change might be in the offing. On Monday at the Western Governors' Conference that begins here today, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton and Agriculture Secretary Ann M.

A federal advisory panel, concluding a high-level review of the way the nation fights its forest fires, recommended Thursday that government policy be clarified to ensure that fewer naturally caused fires are allowed to burn unchallenged. Until the policy can be revised, a moratorium on the current "let it burn" strategy should be imposed to require fire managers to combat every fire that erupts in national parks and wilderness areas, the panel said.

Summer fires torched more than 4.3 million acres of America's parks and forests, and now the National Arbor Day Foundation wants public help in replacing the trees. As part of its drive, the nonprofit organization will plant 10 trees in a fire-wounded forest on behalf of anyone who pays $10 to become a foundation member. Membership contributions may be sent to Forest Trees, National Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Ave., Nebraska City, Neb., 68410.

The White House confirmed Tuesday that the 16-year-old federal conservation policy known as "let burn"--in which most lightning-caused fires in national parks and federal forest preserves were allowed to burn out by themselves--had been overturned for the remainder of the 1988 fire season. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater noted that the "let burn" policy had been abruptly changed in late July after Interior Secretary Donald P.