Red Bluff Daily News reporter Ashley Gebb published a story on the Restore the Mendo campaign's effort to increase the use of controlled burns in the Mendocino National Forest. She took note of both the values of conducting such burns and the challenges that have been limiting their use.
She reports early in her article that: "Among other benefits, controlled burns reduce threats by removing debris that can cause larger fires, restore forest ecosystems and allow for greater control of smoke irritation said Rich Fairbanks, fire program associate for the California-Nevada region of The Wilderness Society."
She then rightly relays the Restore the Mendo coalition's contention that Congress needs to appropriate more funding for controlled burns and that Congressman Mike Thompson and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein could be instrumental in making that happen.
Again quoting Fairbanks, this time to put the picture of controlled burns into perspective: "The public needs to recognize that this is something that is part of nature," he said. "Humans have deliberately burned for thousands of years in the West."
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