The Colorado Fires and the reports of the New York Times
It’s common to see news of wildfire during the summer months. In fact, fire is a fact of life in western ecosystem (Scientific American 2002). A more intense fire can have survived dozens of less-intense fires (Sampson & Dwight 2000). Also, the weather is strongly influencing the behavior and area burned of wildfire (Johnson 2001). In the northern hemisphere, the surface wind shift southwest to northwest occurs with passage of a cold front (Johnson 2001). The synoptic weather conditions of large wild land fires (over 2000ha) were associated with a dry cold front. Dry spells and low relative humidness influence fuel moisture which affects the range of fire danger (Johnson 2001). That is why the wildfire can cover large areas and be so dangerous to human beings and animals.
The composition of wood includes a large quantity of resins and essential oils, which have a comparatively high calorific value. In addition, oxygen constitutes almost 42% of the total wood content, which makes wood a highly oxidized substance. Therefore, wood cannot liberate a big quantity of heat during the Combustion. However, preliminary oxidation makes the hydrocarbon molecule unstable. Those molecules can decompose at low preheating temperatures. In the process of decomposition, gaseous substances are liberated, which, on mixing with air, begin to burn with a flame. This is why wood is one of easily ignitable materials (Artsybashev 1984).
When oxygen deficiency, all the particles of solid carbon do not burn in a flame and a portion of these are carried upward by a connection current, forming smoke. Smoke includes vapors and incomplete burnt particles, which means, the darker the smoke, the larger the components of carbon particles in it. In fact, during the period of combustion, up to 70% of the total heat is liberated, the rest of the 30% is the coal phase of combustion (Artsybashev, 1984).
I.S. Melekhov and N.P Kurbastskii (1984) classified the wildfire into three catalogs; I –ground fires, II – tree-crown fires, III – underground fires. In the beginning, almost every wildfire takes a form of a ground fire, if the suitable conditions develop, it is transformed into an underground or tree-crown fire. Therefore, ground fire can be called the main type of wildfire while underground and tree-crown fires can be called derived fire. In the process of the development, one type of wildfire can quickly transform itself into another type or can appear in a combination of two or even three types.
The impact of wildfire include: alter soil conditions, affect vegetative successional patterns, and create large landscape patterns that may reduce habitat diversity (Sampson & Dwight 2000). It significantly impacts the scenic environment and human health close to the wildfire location (Sampson & Dwight 2000).
People who lived close the wildfire range might lose their life and houses (DeBano, Neary, & Folliott, 1998) There are also concern as to the health impact to people in towns and cities located on the urban/ wild land where the impact can include loss of life & property. (Gale & Cortner, 1987) This is how the media and the public threatened by the wildfire. Media reported the fears of people and reflect how people felt about the event. By conducting the research, we are going to discuss how The New York Times framed the issue of wildfire by examine the Hayman Fire, Colorado, and assess the tone and attitude that The New York Times coverage of the issue of wildfire.
Method
Participants
We collected information on wildfires from the New York Times from June 1, 2002 until the present. Because no wildfires have yet occurred in 2003, our research will focus on the events that occurred during the year. Each fire in 2002 was unique in character. The uniqueness of the Hayman fire in Colorado was extreme weather conditions, and the number of houses burned. 133 homes, 1 commercial building and 466 outbuildings were burned in Hayman fire while 4 houses and 1 outbuilding were burned in Biscuit complex fire in Oregon/ California. Because of the number of wildfires Colorado experienced in 2002, it is an appropriate subject of our research.
Statistic
The 2002 fire season was one of the biggest of the past half-century. The total fires and acres in 2002 were 73,457 and 7,184,712 respectively. Comparing the year 2002s’ number to the five and the ten-year averages, 2002 number of fires was below average, but the acres burned were above average for the past ten years.
Fire # Acres # of lightning caused acres # of human caused acres
2002 73,457 7,184,172 4,097,593 3077119
past five years avg. 82,943 5,151,602
past 10 years avg. 79,742 4,239,267
Avg worst 85,294 6,176,946
The worst (2000) 7,383,493
Table1: wildfire in 2002
43 percent of national number of fires happened in Southern area. Alaska had 31% of national acres burned, Southwest had 16%, Northwest had 15%& Rocky Mountain had 15%. Estimated Cost of Fire Suppression $ 1.6 billion. In 2002, wildfire happened often in July (171 times) and June (136 times). The 2002 fire season set a new record for number of days in Preparedness Level 4 and level 5 for a total 88 days while the total days in Preparedness Level 4 and 5 avg. were 36 and 26 days.
Average Worst Summary
Quick analysis of the past ten years of data and averaging the data from extremely active years, resulted in the worst average ever recorded. Using data from the year 1994, 1996, 2000 and 2002 the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) summarized a record:
Category Year Amount 2002 stats
Wildland fires 1996 96,363 73,943
Wildland acres burned 2000 7,383,493 7,184,712
Wildland fire use fires 2002 1,611
Wildland fire use acres burned 2001 93,646 66,788
Days of preparedness Level 4 2002 26
Days of preparedness Level 5 2002 62
T-1 Helicopters 2002 249
T-2 Helicopters 1996 312 281
Table 2: Average worst summary
Based of the original 18 categories of benchmarks new levels were set for:
6 – in 2002
5 – in 1994
2 – 1996
4 – 2000
1 – 2001
Quick Facts of Colorado wildfire
Location: Pike-San Isabel National Forest, 30 miles southwest of Dinver, Colorado.
Dates: Fire started 4 pm June 8, 2002 and was declared contained July 2, 2002.
Cause: Human cause, possibly arson.
Area within Fire Perimeter: 137,760 acres
Structures lost: 133 homes, 1 commercial buildings, and 466 outbuildings.
Ownership: National Forest land represents 72% of the area in the burn boundary.
Landscape: Rugged terrain with Ponderosa Pine, Mixed Conifer, Gambel oak and Aspen.
Cost to date: $ 39 million.
The majority of the severe burning in the Hayman Fire occurred on June 9th, 2002. That happened to be the day with high winds & record temperature as well as low relative humidity which made control impossible. In fact, Colorado National Interagency Fire Center issued a Red Flag Warning in Colorado for winds at 25-35 mph, very warm weather and extremely low relative humidity. As the result, June 9th turned out to be the biggest blowup day. On this Red Flag day, one section of the fire spread 1/2 mile in just four minutes. This fire was totally dominated by Mother Nature.
Results
“In today’s world, public memory is almost as the same as the media, and the public memory of fires will be a creation of press”, said Robert Barbee, the superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. Media influences the way we think today, in doing so, media help create the agenda of issues our society consider salient. The wildfire in Hayman, Colorado spread rapid and soon became the largest wildfire in year 2002. Therefore, it became a story because of magnitudes, timeless and empathy.
The stakeholders of the report are, Forest Service, Colorado government of local government, environmentalists, environmental originations and area residents.
How the press “saw” the wildfire.
Wildfire often happens in summer. Once it happens, it reminds people the power of nature and the counterattack of the civilization, especially in high winds and record temperatures which made control impossible.
The phrases or topics journalists picked to describe the wildfire such as:
“Wildfire forces Coloradoans from homes (June 9).“
“1,100 flee a wildfire in California; 7 homes burn (James Sterbgold, June 8).”
“3 die in fire engine fall (July 29).”
As the result, there is a conflict between people or property (good) vs. wildfire (evil) and/or government/bureaucracy (evil). It caused more tragedies because of the innocence victims and the empathy which the public felt for people who suffered as a result as the damage as caused by the wildfire.
“William Allstetter of the city’s National Jewish Medical and Research Center said patients suffering from asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis were complaining of more symptoms (Lake George, June 13).”
“Experts said it could take months to put it out (Michael Janofsky, June 17).”
Sometimes, its more dramatic or controversial when the media finds out that the disturber (troublemaker) is also the protector…
“Rick Cables, a regional forester for the Forest Service, said, “I am shocked…at a news conference in Castle Rock, Colorado.” (Michael Janofsky, June 17). ”
“She sat alone, without family or friends and not yet represented by a lawyer….She responded barely above a whisper to questions from Judge Michael J. Watanalce (Michael Janofsky, June 18).”
“She was on patrol and responsible for warning visitors not to start a fire, the criminal complaint said. (This) prompted a conflicted response not only of anger, but also sympathy both from people.” ”You’re angry. You’re surprised. You’re upset of all the people you’d think she’d be the last person to do what she did.”...her neighbors said..Her mother...her mother-in-law...her husband…friends… relatives… (Michael Janofsky, June 18).”
“I tried to imagine her in slow motion, lighting the match, setting it off and then watching the flames charge across the grass to the pines, within a day or two the fire was leaping from the tops of trees, crossing roads and streams, exploding pine sap, creating head so intense that whole weather systems whirled out the flames. It was now burned more than 135,000 acres (OP-ED section, June 20).”
“She is facing xx years in prison, fines of xxx,xxx. (2002, June 11, June 20, June 21, December 7, & 2003, January 7, February 22).”
Those are the examples about how The New York Time reported in the first one month, however, after the emotional period passed, The New York Time started discussing the reason why, and the strategy of how federal government deal with wildfire.
“Do firefighters like to set fires? A “ The New York Times’ journalist asked (July 9)! U.S. Forest Service employee and Fort Apache Indian Reservation firefighter caused two big wildfires in Colorado and Arizona in 2002.
“The only thing that burns hotter than a wildfire in the west is the demagoguery of some politicians trying to take advantage of it (June 30). ”
“Summer after summer, our political leaders – at both the federal and local levels – fail to offer large-scale, long-term solution (August 8, Roger Kennedy ).”
Discussion
Wildfire is a natural ecological factor affecting the structure and function of the forest. We, forest resource managers and the general public, need to understand fire and its role in forest ecosystem as a natural environmental component of the ecosystem and not an exogenous factor in order to properly utilize fire as a land management tool. (Kauffman, 1990).
By conducting the research, we examine how The New York Times cover the issue of wildfire, and how public received and knowledge the role of wildfire in human society, ecology and the relationship between human actions and ecology as well.
By comparing the document provided by the Wilderness Society, Forest Fires: Facts and Fiction, we can clearly see how The New York Times cover the wildfire and the similar concepts between New York Times and environmental organizations.
The Wilderness Society argued the U.S. Forest Service must improve its performance in the blame-game and should try harder to achieve the goal of the National Fire Plan. They had listed actions that U.S. Forest Service fail to do so. Meanwhile, The New York Times had corroborated the issue about how U.S. Forest Service fails its duty.
1. The Forest Service is not prioritizing its current activities to best protect communities (Wilderness Society, 2002).
Roger Kennedy (August 8), the New York Journalist wrote “Yet we, the public and the government, continue to show moral failure – failing to put people, not property first, refusing to face up to the long-term causes of wildfires that put so many people in danger….they join the quest for individual villains and offer nostrum about privatizing the work of reducing “fire load” …as if a return to the practices of the 19th century would address land-use and development patterns that have made wildfires so dangerous and costly. ”
2. Forest Service uses fires to justify more logging (Wilderness Society, 2002).
To a large extent, thinning is expensive and experimental (Jim Robbins, August 27). Environmentalists argued that the Forest Service is using the fear of wildfires to allow logging companies to remove medium- and large-diameter trees that they can sell, rather than just the small trees to make the fires more severe (Jim Robbins, August 27). Bush administration tried to use this date-free idea to utilize the timber companies. There is no restriction to small trees or bush. There is not even a promise to stay out of wilderness areas or sensitive habitats (Katharine Q. Seelye, December 12 ). Environmentalists concerned that today’s proposal would provide less protection to forests and wildlife than the 1982 rules, issued by President Ronald Reagan. The Clinton rules took effect on Nov. 9 2000, but the Bush administration put them on hold five months later (Robert Pear, November 28).”
3. Claims that conservation groups delayed fire reduction efforts are flat-out wrong (Wilderness Society 2002).
According to a federal study last summer, fewer than 1 percent of 1,67 fire-prevention projects had been appealed (June 30). Instead, the Forest Service issued a different report that utilized Enron-inspired accounting (Wilderness Society 2002).
The New York Times framed the Hayman fire, Colorado with emotional and sympathy toward the people who suffered or lost their property in wildfire. However, the attitude (for the local news) changed when it raised level of the federal government. We can see that The New York Times has similar attitude with environmental organizations toward the way U.S. Forest Service and Bush administration deal with wildfire which is educational to the publics and helpful to achieve the goal of the safety of wildfire.
Reference
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