Fire control measures are long overdue

Dear editor:

I would like to thank the folks who were willing to put the time, thought and support into controlling fire starts off the interstate.

For years, efforts have been made to turn the I-84 corridor into a grass savannah. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and many hours were spent on this task. Success was achieved. Grass was grown. But with nothing to harvest it but fire, this corridor became the greatest concentration of human-caused fire in the nation.

This course of action became an expensive and dangerous cycle of fire, suppression and rehab only to burn again.

Not only did the highway right-of-way burn, but thousands of acres of surrounding private and public lands burned as well, threatening and destroying habitat, forage, property and livelihoods. The cost to Elmore County alone ran into millions of dollars.

Now with the efforts of many, the paradigm has shifted from growing grass to controlling fire by reducing or removing fuel loads. This is being accomplished by spraying the shoulders and mowing and disking brown strips.

Again, thanks to those within the Idaho Department of Transportation, BLM, Mountain Home Rural Fire District, Mountain Home Rangeland Fire Protection Association, Elmore County Commissioners and Elmore County Highway District. A special thanks to state Sen. Bert Brackett for his leadership and grace, and to Commissioner Wes Wootan, also for his leadership and his willingness to provide a tractor and a disk to put in the first ten-mile brown strip on I-84. You Tipanuk folks owe him a drink.

-- Charles Lyons