High risk of fires restricts activities in California

By Tim Molloy
The Associated Press

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ANGELUS OAKS, Calif. — When Kevin Nolden stopped at a store in San Bernardino National Forest to ask where he and a friend could go for target practice, the woman behind the counter had a quick answer: nowhere.

"You guys know that one of last year's fires was started by a bullet?" asked Patti Dickerson, whose family owns the store a few miles from mountain areas where 160,000 acres burned last year.

That kind of exchange is becoming more common in the San Bernardino forest, where open fires have been banned, shooting is forbidden in all but three designated ranges and tens of thousands of acres in the foothills have been closed because of the intense fire danger created by drought and heat.

Forest officials said the latest restrictions are essential to prevent a repeat of last fall's devastating wildfires that blackened more than 750,000 acres, destroyed 3,650 homes and killed 24 people across Southern California.

"It's a week-to-week thing — we'll do what we have to do," Forest Service spokesman Dave Reider said.

"We're sorry about the inconvenience, but a little inconvenience is not much compared to a 50,000-acre fire. You have to balance the risk."

San Bernardino is the only national forest to be partly closed, although campfires were banned in some Arizona and New Mexico forests in May and June.

There are no plans to shut down any national parks, but officials are watching the situation closely, said Sue Husari, fire-management officer for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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