Doubling of Nevada forest firefighting efforts planned

RENO - The Forest Service will nearly double its fleet of fire engines to fight forest fires in Nevada and across the Sierra's eastern front next year as part of a new national fire plan.

Agency officials planned a news conference Monday to announce details of more than $2 million in new resources headed to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest as a result of the package approved by Congress and recently signed into law by President Clinton.

''It is just about a doubling of our firefighting resources,'' said Mike Dondero, the forest's fire management officer based in Carson City.

''We're still going to get fires. But the idea is to protect communities and provide more resources for the initial attack to keep all the fires in the West from becoming so large,'' he said in an interview.

Twice as many engines -- 22 of the large 750-gallon tankers and 22 of the smaller 150-gallon trucks -- are expected to be on the lines in Nevada when the next fire season opens in the spring.

As much as $500,000 in additional funding is expected to help reduce fuel loads through everything from grazing sheep in overgrown grasslands to mowing brush and conducting prescribed burns, he said.

The increased resources for the Humboldt-Toiyabe - the largest national forest outside of Alaska - is typical of a boost in spending throughout the Forest Service's nearly 200 million acres nationally, Dondero said.

Two new large fire engines each are planned for Las Vegas, Elko and Ely, he said.

Big new engines also are headed for Mountain City, Sparks, Genoa, Markleeville, Calif., and either Tonopah or Austin.

In addition to the engines, the Forest Service plans the addition of five of its elite ''hot shot'' crews in the Great Basin, including Elko, Salt Lake City, Cedar City, Utah; Boise and Pocatello, Idaho.

Dondero said it will mark the first time in his 32 years working for the agency that its firefighting needs have been met. More typical is the 55 percent of budget requests that were met last year, he said.

The extra resources would have come in handy this summer, especially in Montana, where he helped coordinate efforts against the nation's hottest hot spots.

''We still would have had those fires, but it would have made a difference,'' Dondero said.

''I know personally that when we put in orders for hot shot crews and engines we couldn't get them. They were just unavailable.''

The Humboldt-Toiyabe's Carson ranger district along Nevada's western border contains one of the best examples of the high priority ''urban interface'' areas, where development is increasingly encroaching on federal forest boundaries.

It stretches about 100 miles along the Sierra front from Markleeville, Calif., to near Loyalton, Calif., north of Reno, including the Mount Rose Wilderness, which bumps up against Reno's southwest city limits.

Forest Service officials scheduled the news conference Monday near that boundary, where the largest fire of the season -- the Arrow Creek fire -- threatened dozens of homes in July.

Additional grants also are expected to become available for state and local firefighters -- a key element of the region's efforts, Dondero said.

The Carson ranger district will have eight heavy engines manned with five people seven days a week as a result of the new funding, District Ranger Gary Schiff said.

''That is twice the capacity we have now,'' he said.

''We'll be able to respond a lot faster. We are not in the greatest position right now because we are relying on understaffed resources at the state and local level to help us out,'' Schiff said.

''This will help us get a jump on something before it really takes off.''