The buzz of firefighting airplanes this summer has served as a constant reminder that danger is close.
The arrival Friday of another plane Air Force One could only mean that a catastrophe has occurred.
And just like where theres smoke, theres fire when the president arrives, politics are close behind.
President Barack Obama came to offer support to the people of Colorado Springs, who lost an estimated 346 homes in the Weber Canyon Fire last week.
Still, politicos know that Colorado is a national battleground not just for fires, but for electoral votes. Some of Obamas opponents were quick to blame him for the destruction, while all manner of politicos are anxious to appear helpful.
Meanwhile, some Western leaders say the heated politics of the moment have little to do with the fuel thats feeding this years fires.
Blame and credit
Obama brought controversy before he even landed.
The Colorado Observer, a conservative website, blamed the president for the Forest Services cancellation last year of a contract for six aerial tankers with a California company. The Forest Service said the company was not meeting safety standards.
And former Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, told several reporters that he thought Obamas visit would be a distraction, forcing current Gov. John Hickenlooper to defend his fellow Democrat.
So far, without exception, everyone thinks (Obamas) willingness to come down and spend time with the firefighters and certainly the people who have lost their homes and been evacuated demonstrates the support of the entire country, Hickenlooper said.
Hickenlooper applied for federal disaster assistance Thursday and warned that it often takes weeks to get approval. Obama made the declaration that night.
The White House press office also recited the litany of resources Washington has devoted to Western wildfires 17 air tankers, 8,400 firefighters, 578 engines and 79 helicopters, plus four C-130 air tankers from the military. Colorado had half the countrys firefighting resources last week.
Even charity took on a partisan stripe.
Hickenlooper also announced the Colorado Fire Relief Fund 2012, a way to make private donations. People can visit www.helpcoloradonow.org or text the word FIRE to 80000 to make a $10 donation.
Republicans followed suit by starting to collect donations for fire victims at their campaign offices and a website, www.cologop.org/message-to-help-colorado-wildfire-victims.
Lessons of the land
Beyond the politics of the moment, though, Hickenlooper sees lessons to be learned.
The Waldo Canyon Fire ravaged through western Colorado Springs the same day a smaller fire threatened Boulder.
Boulder escaped damage when the fire stayed behind the ridge outside town. Hickenlooper noted, though, that Boulder had something else working in its favor an open space program that goes back decades and has left large parts of the mountain backdrop off-limits to development.
There is a huge amount of open space and meadows that the community of Boulder County paid for. It actually turns out to be very good fire insulation from where people are living. Maybe when we talk to Great Outdoors Colorado, that should be something we look at when were protecting open space, Hickenlooper said.
Great Outdoors Colorado uses lottery funds to buy conservation easements. Colorado has the countrys most active conservation easement program.
Local partnerships
Its the type of thing Dan Kemmis, a former Montana Speaker of the House, likes to see.
For decades, Kemmis said, cities and counties made their own decisions on where to develop, and the Forest Service made separate decisions on how to manage the land right next door to towns.
Of course, what we know now is they were making separate decisions for single ecosystems, Kemmis said. Were not dealing with separate landscapes. Its one landscape.
Kemmis wrote This Sovereign Land, a book about federal failures to manage public lands and what to do about it. He sees promise in greater cooperation between federal land management agencies and the Western counties and their people.
The federal budget deficit and debt crisis means that, at least in my opinion, its no longer going to be possible for the federal government to even attempt to manage the millions of acres it has responsibility for without all the help it can get. And it does seem to me that help is at hand, if we look at the whole history of collaborative efforts throughout the West, Kemmis said.
Kemmis thinks the Obama Administration got it right from the start by focusing on collaborative conservation efforts like the Blackfeet Challenge in his home state. But its easier said than done. The administration hasnt changed its policy, but he senses some of the wind has gone out of its sails.
I think maybe theyve gotten focused on other matters, like elections, he said.
