By Spencer Hunt
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two fires set by the state to reduce the risk of wildfires in the Shawnee State Forest burned out of control, leading advocacy groups to ask Gov. Ted Strickland to ban the practice.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources faces sanctions by the state Environmental Protection Agency for an April 2008 “controlled burn” that spread to 6 acres.
And late last month, Natural Resources had to abandon a controlled burn of 233 acres because it joined two arson wildfires that ended up destroying more than 2,800 acres in Scioto and Adams counties over seven days.
Michael W. Thompson, a volunteer firefighter in Niles Township, has been charged with arson in the wildfire, the largest the state has seen in 20 years.
“They don’t appear to be able to control fires when they set them,” said David Maywhoor, director of the Buckeye Forest Council, whose group opposes controlled burns in state forests.
Natural Resources stands by its policy and plans seven controlled burns this fall across 3,100 acres in four state forests, including the Shawnee.
It has lighted more than 500 controlled burns in the past decade. The state and private agencies burn more than 30,000 acres a year.
The state says the fires reduce dead wood and leaves that could otherwise fuel wildfires, as well as help state foresters protect old-growth oak trees.
Fire, researchers say, has indirectly protected the ecological system in North America for centuries. American Indians burned land used for hunting and gathering. In the 17th century, when Europeans settled in North America, forests and woodlands were burned to create farmland.
Nevertheless, the Portsmouth Air Agency, which works for the Ohio EPA, found that state forestry officials had violated an open burning permit when fire spread outside the boundaries of a 193-acre burn on April 8, 2008.
The Ohio EPA could fine the Department of Natural Resources.
The Forest Council, the Ohio Environmental Council and the Ohio Sierra Club say they want Strickland to ban controlled burns.
Strickland won’t back a ban, spokeswoman Amanda Wurst said.
Though the Ohio EPA hasn’t decided what to do about the 2008 fire, spokeswoman Erin Strouse said the agency is “generally satisfied” with the way Natural Resources handles controlled burns.
The Nature Conservancy also uses controlled burns to limit invasive plants and promote the growth of native plants and trees in forests and prairies in preserves it owns nationwide, including the 515-acre Strait Creek Prairie Bluffs Preserve in Pike County.
Copyright 2009 The Columbus Dispatch
All Rights Reserved