Interior secretary seeks wildfire strategy that protects habitat

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is calling for a new wildfire-fighting strategy to protect a wide swath of sagebrush country that supports cattle ranching and is home to a struggling bird species. She issued an order Tuesday seeking a “science-based” approach that safeguards the greater sage grouse while contending with fires that have been especially destructive in the Great Basin region of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and California. The wide-ranging Western bird has been on a collision course in recent years with oil and gas, agriculture and other industries. Jewell’s order stems at least in part from a conference this fall in Boise that brought together scientists and land managers to find collaborative ways to protect Great Basin rangelands from the plague of increasingly intense wildfires. One change suggested by Neil Kornze, director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, was to put the protection of rangeland resources ahead of property. The protection of human life would remain the top priority. “If we were to flip the bottom two, it would change a lot, and it would be hard,” Kornze said in closing remarks at the conference. “It would be hard to explain that to some of our urban and mixed-landscape firefighting partners.” Jewell’s order creates a task force and sets a March 1 deadline for it to report on guidelines for the 2015 wildfire season...more