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consumed. For these reasons, Western wildfires are becoming larger, 

 more dangerous, more destructive, and more expensive to suppress. 



Plate 2 is a photo of a fire deprived ponderosa pine / Douglas-fir 

 forest. 



Plate 3 is a high intensity fire in a fire deprived ponderosa pine 

 forest. Fire had been excluded since 1889. This fire was dangerous 

 and expensive. It cost more than $100 per acre to suppress. 



Plate 4 is a photo of a Rx fire (Rx = prescribed) in a forest where fire 

 burned about every 26 years. Fire had not been excluded. It is not 

 dangerous and is easy to suppress. University of Idaho students 

 ignited and controlled this fire and it cost less than $10 per acre to 

 burn. 



Plate 5 is from American Forest magazine and illustrates a fire fighter 

 suppressing a wildfire in the early 1900's in a ponderosa pine / 

 Douglas-fir forest. The intensity of the fire is similar to that of the Rx 

 fire in plate 4 and the natural fire in plate 1. 



Plate 6 is the Star Gulch fire, a high intensity fire in 1994 on the Boise 

 National Forest that burned approximately 20,000 acres. 



Plate 7. All the trees marked in black were killed by high intensity 

 fire. The orange color indicates areas where some trees survived due 

 to fires burning at low intensities. Areas over 100 acres that did not 

 burn are marked in green. 



Prior to this fire the black areas were predominantly ponderosa pine. 

 After the fire, black areas were converted to brush, leaving an 

 extremely altered landscape mosaic. It will take more than 250 years 

 for these black areas to return to a ponderosa pine forest if they 

 return at all. Historically, this entire area would have burned 

 approximately every 15 years and recovery would have taken 

 another 10 years. The larger, more fire resistant trees survived under 



