Future
A re-examination of forest fire prevention techniques was already in progress at the time of the Cerro Grande Fire and received added impetus from the damage the fire inflicted. The far larger Rodeo-Chediski fire in Arizona, as well as several other fires in the western United States in 2002, completed the process of bringing forest fires into political focus, leading to the establishment of the Healthy Forests Initiative in 2003. This initiative remains controversial, and its applicability to the relatively sparse forests of the Jemez Mountains that were consumed in the Cerro Grande Fire is unclear. It is certainly clear, however, that significant thinning of the coniferous forest of the Jemez has occurred in the years following Cerro Grande.
The local community has also taken many steps to prevent and protect against future wildfires. Steps include removing vegetation around buildings to increase defensible space; replacing roof and sheathing materials (e.g. cedar shakes) with less flammable materials; and continued thinning and reduction of fuels in unburned wooded areas in and around town, particularly in the canyons below populated mesas.
A new book on the Cerro Grande Fire was published in the summer of 2010. Inferno by Committee gives a detailed history of the fire and what went wrong. The book is written by a professional fire-fighter.
Read more about this topic: Cerro Grande Fire
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“After the final no there comes a yes
And on that yes the future world depends.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“I say—the future is a serious matter—
And so—for God’s sake—hock and soda-water!”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“If nations always moved from one set of furnished rooms to another—and always into a better set—things might be easier, but the trouble is that there is no one to prepare the new rooms. The future is worse than the ocean—there is nothing there. It will be what men and circumstances make it.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)