Climate Change
Indictment of US Forest Service Burn Boss in Oregon Could Chill ‘Good Fires’ Across the Country
The unprecedented “reckless burning” charge came in a conservative county with a long history of tension between landowners and federal authorities, including the 2016 takeover of a nearby wildlife refuge by armed protesters.
A “burn boss” with the U.S. Forest Service is facing unprecedented criminal charges for an escaped prescribed burn in rural Oregon, which may complicate nationwide goals to set low-intensity fires that can thin out excess vegetation and dead wood in overgrown forests to improve forest health and lower the risk of uncontrollable wildfires igniting.
Indictment of US Forest Service Burn Boss in Oregon Could Chill ‘Good Fires’ Across the Country