Chambers, who joined the fire department in 2002. “Calling these huge fires of recent years natural disasters – they’re very much not natural disasters,” says Mr. “There’s a choice: We can burn the land on our terms, or we can let nature burn everything – and we won’t like the effects.”Ĭhris Chambers, wildfire division chief with Ashland Fire and Rescue, looks out over a 16,000-acre forested watershed that the city has been protecting from fire by thinning trees and brush. He intends to request approval from Ashland officials to treat the 25-acre park with prescribed fire to remove dead and excess vegetation. Chambers, the wildfire division chief for the city fire department, who wears a black face mask against the nose-stinging smoke. The parched land presents a fire threat to the town’s 21,000 residents – and, he explains, another chance to better protect them from the flames. Drought has browned its grass and many of its pine and madrone trees. Standing atop the storage tank, Chris Chambers points toward Hald Strawberry Park, visible through the haze about a half-mile away and encircled by homes. Wildfires burning elsewhere in Oregon and to the south in California have blurred the blue skies, turning the city into a soup bowl of ash-gray smoke. This warm September morning is not, alas, such a day. A municipal water tank built into the forested hills above Ashland offers postcard views of the mountain valley town on clear days.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |