Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 8

Section 1 Chicago Tribune, Monday, March 31. 1997 IU.S. plan to burn forests comes under fire Across the nation From Tribune News Services TENNESSEE Associated Press WASHINGTON Smokey Bear a career of stomping out Fearing spread of controlled blazes, critics call for more salvage logging fires, so it might seem odd to wliunn ui me u.a. roresi service getting trees ablaze. "When I grew up, fire was Always the enemy of the forest.

Now it's a friend?" asked Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.) at a recent earing. the weather," said Smith, worried about blazes getting out of hand. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck agrees, telling lawmakers, "There isn't a burn that's not dangerous." Dombeck added that more controlled blazes are needed to reduce fuel loads that threaten catastrophic blazes at one-fifth of the 191 million acres of U.S. national forests the result of decades of "extensive, overzeal-ous if you will, fire suppression." That's right The Forest Service has done too good a job of fighting fires, even as the government set an average of 300,000 acres burning to get rid of dead and dying trees every year for the past decade.

Until recently, federal firefight- Not everybody is happy with Clinton administration plans to increase so-called prescribed Wburning to 1.3 million acres in 1998 from 750,000 acres this year JLo clear overstocked national forests of dead and dying timber. Rep. Bob Smith chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, sees "a lot of hidden problems in prescribed burning" and prefers that salvage logging lear forest floors of tinder instead. "People will always make mis-judgments. Nobody can predict "If there's a disaster, Mother Nature takes its own course.

There's no ability to control the situation," Dombeck said. Environmentalists prefer prescribed burning as a more natural alternative to the removal of dead and dying timber. The charred, decaying wood left by fires nurtures soil and provides habitat for wildlife. "We don't buy the argument that you have to get in there and harvest timber in order to make the woods safe from fire," said Greg Aplet, a forest ecologist for The Wilderness Society in Denver. A clear cut doesn't leave "the biological legacy of a natural fire," he said.

Rep. Smith believes there's too much dead wood in the forests now to rely on prescribed fires. "When you get the kind of fuel loading we have now, you can't fight fires. You just get out of the way," he said. Elaine Zielinski, the U.S.

Bureau of Land Management's state director for Oregon and Washington, said she doesn't personally like prescribed fires. "I hate them. There's all the smoke. They are dangerous. People think you set a line and it stops." But right now, she added, "We have to look at the tradeoffs out there.

There's a feeling among a lot of folks that we have not used prescribed fire as much as we need to." ers who saw 6 million acres burn naturally last year tried to douse every blaze. As a result, they upset the natural cycle of fire that for 10,000 years made way for more mature trees. "The price we have paid for 60, 80 or 100 years of very effective fire suppression is that we have changed the succession of ecosystems," said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. The problem has been compounded by clearcut logging that stripped forests of native tree species, Babbitt said. Many were replaced by less fire-resistant trees that are more susceptible to insects and disease.

In arguing for prescriptive burns, Babbitt used the analogy of a person with "a long history of poor eating habits and indigestion. We need to burn off the unhealthy fat, not practice forest liposuction." The Forest Service wants $30 million to $50 million for the burning program for fiscal 1998 to set fire to between 850,000 acres and 1.3 million acres. With a planned burn, Dombeck said, the Forest Service can choose favorable conditions, temperatures, humidity, wind direction and speed. AP photo Picking up the pieces: Residents and friends on Sunday sort debris at a Chattanooga, Tenn, townhouse complex devastated by a tornado over the weekend. At least 44 people were injured as twisters raked the state, which has asked forfederal disaster relief.

Balloon Flights Gift Certificates Available The Perfect 16 Years Experience FAA Licensed Pilots Fully Insured $99 Rag. $1M 0 Expires 41197 Gift 1 1-888-789-7400 A sj I 1 ,1 A rtTiWM.UibMt tm sua WISCONSIN Indian tribes' anti-casino fight involved funds for Democrats MADISON Three Wisconsin Indian tribes waged a successful lobbying effort to defeat an off-reservation casino project at a Hudson, dog track, it was reported Sunday. The 1995 lobbying effort Involved top White House aides and Democratic National Committee co-chairman Don Fowler, the Wisconsin State Journal said, citing court documents. Wisconsin tribes joined Minnesota tribes in giving at least $273,000 to key national Democratic committees in 1996, according to federal campaign records released last week. The tribes all operated casinos that could have been threatened by a casino in Hudson on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.

One tribal leader, Lewis Taylor of the St. Croix Chippewas, said in the court documents that donations were offered to the Democrats as a way to get help on the casino and other issues. Tens of thousands of dollars more in donations from individual tribal members and their lobbyists also went to help Democratic candidates opposing the Hudson casino project One of the top individual recipients was Rep. David Obey, who chose sides among tribes in his 7th Congressional District Obey sided with the St Croix, who contributed to his campaign at a May 13, 1995, fundraiser in Madison. Opponents depended on Obey to lobby the Department of Interior and then-White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, memos showed.

Those who lost the casino fight charge that the donations were a payoff to Democratic politicians, including President Clinton, who helped kill the project, the paper said. Opponents of the Hudson casino say the law and public sentiment supported the decision of the Clinton administration and that casino supporters are jumping to a conspiracy theory. W201 SALE PRICES GOOD THRU jTNlTs. C.m Ue TUESDAY SSSS) (bjli Only From Sealy tlX7V vi I PV -1 SEALY l-y 1 POSTUREPEDICC CCAI POSTUREPEDIC Queen Set rm SALE ITEMl la. ma 'i'H' NEW YORK Disney to open site on Web for kids NEW YORK If The Walt Disney Co.

has its way, the next computer mouse you buy will be named Mickey. On Monday, Disney unveils a Web site for kids called Disney's Daily Blast, scheduled to. launch sometime in April Loaded with animated characters from the Disney stable, the $4.95 a month service will feature games, stories, comics, activities and news targeted at children ages 3 to 12. Disney has struck a deal to give subscribers to the Microsoft Network on-line service free access to the site. The service, long rumored to be under development, is the entertainment giant's first major offering of children's programing on the Net.

The company already operates a site, Family.com, for adults. It is also rumored to be interested in acquiring Starwave which operates a sports-related Web site. On-line analyst Kate Del-hagen said that Disney, like other companies trying to charge for editorial content on the Internet could have a tough time selling Daily Blast to other customers. W203 NEVADA Huge land tract is up for auction RENO In a throwback to the homestead era, a sprawling mass of Nevada bigger than Las Vegas and Reno combined is on the auction block this week, offering bidders a chunk of the state for as little as $50 an acre. There's a catch though: It's remote.

No roads, no power, little water. "This is cowboy property eight to 10 miles off the freeway," broker John Blom said at a meeting with potential bidders in Las Vegas. The government gave the 1.4 million acres to a rail company for the transcontinental railroad in 1869. In 1995, the Santa Fe Railroad sold it to a real estate company, the Nevada Land Resource Co. of Reno.

The 101 parcels, ranging from 155 to 714 acres, are scattered across 340 miles of desert from east of Reno to Wells, most of them within a fairly short drive or horseback ride of Interstate Highway 80. Minimum bids for the parcels containing 640 acres one square mile range from $2900 in Churchill County to more than $110,000 in Elko County. W202 KS 0RTH0 REST I fJj ORTHOPLUS bd EXTRA FIRM EXTRA FIRM LUXURY Compare Every Day OUR SALE compare our low compare, our low At Low Price PRICE AT PRICE Twin AT PRICE IftC. .355 M89 M68 S.inpc. M95 $69ErPC.

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31 QQ BUflK DCU AvallaaM rad. aMIa. alaa aid atact. I9v Futon Sofa Sleeper imIOS. 79 mIi Canopy Bed Headboard i MAA H1A hcMn ttHRm Fnm WM.nM.FmMi'ifwi'Kt OVIEDO Two tiny, rare, white snow tigers were born at an animal training center and are destined for a theme park.

The cubs weighed only six ounces at birth Saturday and were doing well Sunday, said David McMillan, who owns Tiger's Eye Productions, where they were born near Orlando. "They weigh only six ounces each. There is nothing but tissue on them. You could crush them with your hand they are so delicate," he said. Human handlers were in the cage with the tame mother, 300-pound Aesha, to make sure she didn't roll over or otherwise harm the cubs.

"They are in excellent condition," McMillan said. "The mother is a very gentle animal." There are no white tigers left in the wild, he said. There are about 60 in captivity worldwide. The cubs will join their 3-year-old parents at Splendid China, a theme park near Orlando. They may be on display this week, McMillan said.

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