Study faults federal wildfire effort

JEFF BARNARD AP Environmental Writer GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP)

While more than 1,000 homes across the West burn each year in forest and brush fires, only a fraction of federal efforts to reduce fire danger in the region has been concentrated in the communities at greatest risk, a group of scientists found. The scientists analyzed a database containing the locations of all 44,613 fuelreduction projects undertaken in Western states by various federal agencies under the National Fire Plan from 2004 through 2008. They found that only 3 percent of those projects were within what is known as the wildla...