Forest Service stonewalling is shameful

During last summer's wildfire season, the worst in recent memory, crews struggling to contain blazes resorted to extraordinary steps, including the widespread use of backburns to keep flames in check. We're not second-guessing firefighters who took what looked like the best available steps in the middle of a dire emergency. Once the fires are out, though, it's not too much to ask for the government to help clean up the messes it made, and especially to compensate private property owners who suffered severe losses when their land was abused to protect the general public. It's not too much to ask - unless you're asking the U.S. Forest Service, which has denied claims for compensation related to burnouts including that of William Heinrici, a Junction City-area resident who's had to haul water to his home since a burnout destroyed his water lines...Instead, nearly a year after the fire and a full six months after Rep. Wally Herger's office intervened with the Forest Service, the Heinrici family is still trucking water in drums. In Herger's correspondence with the Forest Service, the agency said it was waiting until all fire-related claims were received or the two-year statute of limitations passed before processing any of them. This might make sense in the Magical Kingdom of Bureaucratia, but it is simply insane when we're discussing human lives. Two years to process the claim? The central-office functionaries who made that call should spend two weeks living without running water and then see how important prompt action is. It's easy to imagine disputes over whether damage was caused by the wildfire or by the fire crews themselves - but there is no question in this case. Even the district ranger agrees Forest Service crews started the backburn and has verified the damage, according to Herger. Yet the Forest Service is still stonewalling Heinrici. It's shameful.RecordSearchlight