SOS Forests

Walter’s Whoofoo

As of 6am this morning the Bridge Creek Fire has reached 3,000 acres. The fire is five miles south of Mitchell, Oregon and threatening that city, its watershed, the Indian Prairie area, Mt. Pisgah, and hundreds of homes and ranches in the area.

The Northwest Interagency [Fire] Coordination Center reported this morning:

The fire has reached White Butte to the north and Thompson Creek to the west. Significant growth occurred on all perimeters. A Type 2 Incident Management Team has taken over the suppression efforts.

The IMT called in is the Central Oregon Type II (the CO2’s) under Incident Commander Mark Rapp. The CO2’s are a firefighting fixture in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, frequently called in to the toughest fires. Earlier this summer they contained and controlled the Cold Springs Fire on the south side of Mt. Adams.

The Bridge Creek Fire has already overrun Thompson Spring, Dunn Spring, Lone Reservoir, Bridge Spring, Indian Prairie, Masterson Spring, Maxwell Spring and much of the City of Mitchell Watershed. Numerous cultural and historical sites in the area are threatened or have already been burned over.

The Bridge Creek Fire was ignited by lightning on Aug. 7, more than ten days ago, on the north side of Mt. Pisgah on the Ochoco National Forest. Ochoco NF Forest Supervisor Jeff Walter made the executive decision to Let It Burn. He declared the fire to be a whoofoo, (WFU or Wildland Fire Use fire). Walter and Deschutes National Forest Supervisor John Allen have “signed off” on numerous whoofoos in the last few days, choosing to Let It Burn rather than initial attack with intent to suppress.

That lack of initial attack has allowed the Bridge Creek Fire to blow up into a major fire incident requiring the engagement of the CO2’s Incident Management Team. Currently 185 firefighters are on site, including five Type-2 line crews and 10 fire engines. Firefighters are risking their lives to save the City of Mitchell and what’s left of its watershed because of Ochoco NF Forest Supervisor Jeff Walter’s blunder.

Millions of dollars will be spent, and millions more in damages done, because of a fire that Jeff Walter determined would yield “resource benefits.”

Walter’s decision was illegal. The National Environmental Policy Act requires that federal agency actions which significantly impact the environment must be preceded by an Environmental Impact Statement and go through the NEPA process which includes public involvement and comment. Walter failed to initiate any such NEPA process before declaring whoofoos and doing Let It Burn on the Ochoco NF.

The USFS Wildland Fire Use Implementation Procedures Reference Guide, March 2006, [here, 3.2 MB] has this statement in its preface:

Prior to implementing wildland fire use under the standards in the 2005 Guide, local units must have ensured compliance with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) requirements. In addition, an approved fire management plan must be in place which identifies how the local unit plans to implement wildland fire use. All actions implemented under this guide must also be consistent with local unit land and resource management plans.

Jeff Walter (and John Allen) have made no effort whatsoever to comply with NEPA, NHPA, ESA, or any other federal environmental law. Freedom of Information Act requests sent by W.I.S.E. to the Ochoco and Deschutes National Forests months ago, demanding release of their fire planning documents, have been met with stony silence and cover-up.

Now the predictable outcome of their criminal actions has come to pass. The Bridge Creek Fire has spread off the national forest and is destroying private property in the Mitchell area.

Last summer the USFS allowed the Egley Fire [here] to spread off the Malheur NF and it subsequently destroyed over 100,000 acres, most of which was private property.

The other whoofoos declared by Jeff Walter two weeks ago have also blown up, to 2,000 acres and growing rapidly as of 6am this morning. Despite the obvious hazards and resource damage being done, the Black Canyon WFU Fire south of Dayville, Oregon, is still being treated (illegally) as a whoofoo.

Both Bridge Creek and Black Canyon are mini-wilderness areas, designated by Congress over the strong objections of local residents. The concept of pocket wilderness areas is stupid and very dangerous in practice. In 2006 the Brins Fire [here] arose from a hobo fire in a pocket wilderness adjacent to Sedona AZ and nearly destroyed that city.

The USFS has overspent its fire budget this year (again) by over $400 million dollars. Yet Jeff Walter and John Allen are still declaring illegal whoofoos that will eventually cost taxpayers $millions more than rapid initial attack on the fire starts would have cost. Those government functionaries are squandering the U.S. Treasury in criminal actions that destroy forests, watersheds, and even cities.

Are Walter and Allen members of Al Qaida? Are they following orders from Osama bin Laden? Has the US Forest Service gone stark raving mad?

Why must we repeatedly suffer disasters wrought by criminal eco-terrorism on the part of our hired government functionaries?

Please call or write to Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, and demand that she investigate, indict, arrest, and prosecute Jeff Walter and John Allen for their criminal actions that have led to catastrophe and disaster.

Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney
Portland District Office
1000 SW Third Ave Suite 600
Portland, Oregon 97204
(503)727-100