'Off-Road Rage' Climbs as Trails Get More Crowded As more and more Americans light out for backcountry trails, officials are seeing a parallel rise in episodes of "off-road rage": unpleasant, even violent encounters between drivers of all-terrain vehicles and hikers, mountain bikers and others. Federal officials charged with administering public lands say confrontations that erupt into violence on crowded trails in the West remain rare, but they warn that resentful frictions are rising. The region is the fastest-growing in the United States, driven largely by residents' desire to live near scenic public lands that, on weekends near urban areas, can be downright crowded. "The West is just filling up, and more people are going out to use public lands than ever before," said Heather Feeney, spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department agency that oversees 258 million acres, or about 13 percent of the land surface of the United States....
Wildfire contracting costs too high, critics say Oregon has grown in recent years into an epicenter for contract firefighting companies, with as many as 300 in the business, thanks largely to the state's history in the logging and forestry industries. At fires like this one, where eight Oregon men died in a helicopter crash last week, firefighting has become as coordinated and well-equipped as a military deployment, with the private companies taking more of the work once done by public agencies. That, in turn, has strained the U.S. Forest Service's budget and led to controversy over training and oversight. Contract firefighters dig fire lines and clear branches and brush, and other contractors provide helicopters, food, showers and equipment. On this day in Northern California, contract forces account for as much as 90 percent of firefighting crews and support services in this dusty depot buzzing with the constant hum of generators. "We call it the 'fire industrial complex,' " said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Eugene-based Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology. "It's growing in terms of amount of dollars and in terms of monopolization dynamics."....