Fire fuel vegetation gets the axe in southern Utah Huge swaths of pinyon and juniper trees are disappearing southeast of Enterprise, but instead of going up in smoke, the prodigious trees are being chewed up and spit out. With a relatively slow fire season, state and federal agencies have joined together to clear fire fuels from around communities that increasingly encroach on southwestern Utah's open spaces. As part of the effort, Color Country Interagency Fire Center has used a piece of equipment called a bullhog to help clear trees while leaving wanted plants such as sagebrush and cliff rose, which are important winter forage for wildlife. The Cedar City-based Color Country office is a consortium of state, federal and community fire agencies responsible for wildland fires in five counties in southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona. When not clearing areas by hand using chain saws and axes, the BLM uses its bullhog. With 48 carbide teeth protruding from a rotating cutting head, the machine reduces mature juniper trees to wood chips in seconds....