Jane Cottrell
Forest Supervisor Jane Cottrell explains what the Forest Service did to protect the small town of Dixie, Idaho. She also discusses the changing role of the Forest Service in fighting fires.
On the Forest Service’s role:
“A lot of people have a hard time exactly understanding what the mission of the Forest Service is when it comes to emergency response, and it has evolved over the last several years. It was very simple when, up to the 1970’s, our mission was you put every fire out that starts by 10 a.m. the next day. And we were very good at those suppression efforts. Smoky did a great job at explaining what you had to do for prevention. Today, our emergency response teams respond to everything from large fires, earthquakes, floods, Newcastle Disease, the space shuttle, you name it. So, we’re trained in a lot of variety of different things but some of it is even hard and new for us to take on.”
“You know, I have to say, we have really changed the look of this town. When you understand that for thirty years the residents of this community have talked about how they’re threatened by wildfire and we’ve worked hand and glove with them to try and carry out defensible space projects here but have continually met challenges both in appeals and litigation... Quite frankly, the citizens really see the value of removing those dead trees, of moving that ladder fuel that were pretty common here.”
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