It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Rare pink water bird lands in Michigan, delighting public yesterday
A roseate spoonbill, left, rests on a sandbar in a marshy area of Wilderness Park off Saline-Milan Road in Saline, Mich., on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The bird typically lives in the Gulf Coast region. (Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press via AP)
SALINE, Mich. (AP) — Bird lovers with cameras and binoculars are traveling to a stream in southeastern Michigan to see a rare creature with pink feathers and a long bill.
The roseate spoonbill was found in Saline in the Koch Warner Drain, the first to be seen in Michigan, said Molly Keenan of Michigan Audubon.
The bird, which typically lives in the Gulf Coast region, escaped from a zoo or is “very confused,” said Saline police, which placed traffic cones on a road to manage the flow of people.
“Sometimes they wander a bit too far,” said Benjamin Winger, bird curator at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Whatever the reason, word has spread about the bird. Sally Most and her husband traveled roughly 200 miles (322 kilometers) from Fairmount, Indiana.
“After a time, you see a lot of the same birds, and then you see something unusual. ... I took over 300 pictures of it last night,” Most told the Detroit Free Press. “We’re going home happy campers.”
A roseate spoonbill, center, rests on a sandbar in a marshy area of Wilderness Park off Saline-Milan Road in Saline, Mich., on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The bird typically lives in the Gulf Coast region. (Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press via AP)
EXPLAINER: What’s making mid-Atlantic songbirds sick?
By CHRISTINA LARSON FILE - In this Saturday, April 24, 2021 file photo, a university graduate student holds a female blue jay in her open hand to release it in Silver Spring, Md., after removing it from a mist net used to capture birds for banding or other research projects. A mysterious ailment has sickened and killed thousands of songbirds in several mid-Atlantic states since late spring 2021. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A mysterious ailment has sickened and killed thousands of songbirds in several mid-Atlantic states since late spring. While scientists are still racing to confirm the cause, it seems juvenile birds may be most susceptible. The U.S. Geological Survey, which oversees responses to some natural hazards and risks, has recommended that people temporarily take down bird feeders and clean out bird baths to reduce places that birds could closely congregate and potentially spread disease.
WHICH BIRDS ARE AFFECTED?
So far the majority of birds reported as ailing have been fledgling blue jays, American robins, European starlings and common grackles, but other songbirds are also affected.
The main visible symptoms are swollen eyes or crusty discharge around the eyes, as well as off-balance movements that may indicate neurological damage.
WHERE ARE BIRDS GETTING SICK?
Wildlife managers and veterinarians first received reports in late April and May of sick birds in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Washington, D.C. More recent reports have come from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio and Indiana. The outbreak may have peaked in June and be declining in some early hotspots, but it’s ongoing in other regions, according to Brian Evans, a bird ecologist at the Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute.
WHAT’S CAUSING THE SICKNESS?
Scientists at the USGS, the Smithsonian and universities are still working to determine the causes. Through testing of sick and deceased birds, they have determined that this outbreak was not primarily caused by salmonella, chlamydia, avian influenza virus, West Nile virus or a few other viruses that commonly afflict birds.
WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
USGS is recommending that people remove backyard bird feeders, avoid handling sick birds and keep pets away from birds. The agency also recommends that people with bird baths disinfect them with a solution of 10% bleach and 90% water.
“Because we don’t know what it is, we have to be that much more vigilant. We still don’t know if it’s caused by a virus or a bacteria” or a toxic chemical in pesticides, said Jordan Rutter, director of public relations at the American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit group.
However, removing bird feeders doesn’t have to mean ignoring the needs of birds. Rutter suggested that people with yards could incorporate native plants that provide food, such as berries and nectar, while also attracting insects birds eat.
HOW UNUSUAL IS THIS OUTBREAK?
Birds are susceptible to several viruses and bacteria. When a contagious pathogen begins to spread among birds in an area, wildlife managers typically recommend that residents remove outdoor feeders. This spring an outbreak of salmonella among wild songbirds in several states caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue such a warning.
What’s different in this instance is that scientists do not know the cause of the ailment.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
LIKE MODI IN INDIA Belarus leader vows to keep up raids of NGOs, media outlets
By YURAS KARMANAU FILE - In this Friday, July 9, 2021 file photo, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko addresses members of Belarus National Olympic team ahead of the Summer Olympics Games in Tokyo, Minsk, Belarus. Belarus' authorities on Monday July 19, 2021, raided offices of an independent newspaper and detained three of its journalists as part of a continuing crackdown on media outlets and civil society activists. (Maxim Guchek/BelTA Pool Photo via AP, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The longtime leader of Belarus vowed Thursday to continue a crackdown on civil society activists he regards as “bandits and foreign agents.”
President Alexander Lukashenko chided officials in his administration for allowing the operation of non-governmental organizations that he called “harmful to the state.”
“A mopping-up operation is going on,” Lukashenko said. “Do you think it’s easy? There are thousands of our people working for them, and their brains are distorted and brainwashed with foreign money.”
Belarusian authorities have ramped up raids and arrests of independent journalists and civil society activists in recent weeks.
The Viasna human rights center said the country’s law enforcement agencies have conducted more than 200 searches of offices and apartments of journalists and activists so far this month. The center said authorities detained 11 activists Thursday.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists said authorities raided the apartment of freelance journalist Tanya Smotkina in the town of Hlybokaye for the second time this month and detained her for interrogation on charges of “inciting strife.”
A journalist who worked for the U.S.-funded broadcast RFE/RL and was detained last week, Ina Studzinskaya, declared a hunger strike Thursday to protest authorities refusing to give her access to her lawyer, the journalists’ association said.
The deputy head of the association, Boris Goretsky, said Studzinskaya was kept in cell without a mattress where the lights were kept on around the clock.
Overall, 31 Belarusian journalists are in custody awaiting trial or serving sentences.
The Justice Ministry asked the country’s highest court on Wednesday to shut the Belarusian Association of Journalists over alleged flaws in office lease documents. BAJ said it couldn’t provide the necessary documents to respond to the complaints because its headquarters have been sealed since a police raid last week.
On Thursday, the ministry also appealed to the court to close the Belarusian PEN Center, an association of writers led by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature.
Alexievich, a member of the opposition Coordination Council in Belarus, left the country last year after being summoned for questioning by the state investigative agency.
Earlier this week, authorities froze the PEN Center’s bank accounts.
“Shutting the PEN Center reflects the overall catastrophic situation in the country with authorities trying to immediately silence everyone,” the organization’s deputy head, Taciana Niadbaj, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Minsk. “But even in this atmosphere of fear and repressions we will continue the fight and appeal the authorities’ move.”
Lukashenko, who faced months of protests triggered by his election to a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West saw as rigged, responded to demonstrations with a sweeping crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s main election challenger, was forced to leave Belarus under official pressure after the election. She visited the United States this week for meetings with Biden administration officials and U.S. lawmakers to rally support for the Belarusian opposition.
“When you look me in the eye, you see the eyes of every political prisoner, every activist, every Belarusian who wants to live in a free country,” Tsikhanouskaya told members of U.S. Congress.
House votes to evacuate more Afghan allies as US war ends
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER FILE - In this June 25, 2021, file photo, former Afghan interpreters hold placards during a demonstrations against the US government, in front of the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday, July 22, to allow in thousands more of the Afghans who worked alongside Americans in the Afghanistan war, citing the urgency of protecting those on-the-ground allies from Taliban retaliation as the U.S. military withdrawal enters its final weeks. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to allow in thousands more of the Afghans who worked alongside Americans in the Afghanistan war, citing the urgency of protecting those on-the-ground allies from Taliban retaliation as the U.S. military withdrawal enters its final weeks.
Florida Republican and Vietnam war veteran Rep. Neal Dunn evoked the scenes of the U.S. military withdrawal from Vietnam, which left many Vietnamese who’d worked with American forces fearing — and sometimes meeting — death and detention.
“We cannot do this again. We must not do this again. We must bring back … all the people who were so important to us in combat,” Neal said, urging fellow lawmakers to vote for the bill. “Please do not abandon friends of America again.”
The bill, by Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat and former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan, allows 8,000 more visas for translators and others who worked with U.S. government troops and civilians in Afghanistan. It also eases some requirements for the visas.
Currently, 26,500 of the special Afghan visas are allocated.
The House passed the new measure 407-16, sending it to the Senate. All of the no votes were from Republicans.
President Joe Biden decreed an end to the U.S. military role in Afghanistan by Sept. 11. That will close a U.S. military effort that early on succeeded in its main goal of crushing the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida plotters of the 2001 attacks on the United States, but struggled to quell Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers and stabilize a Kabul-based elected government.
The Pentagon says the U.S. withdrawal is 95% finished and will be completed by Aug. 31.
The last weeks of withdrawal leave the Taliban apparently holding “strategic momentum” in the fight for control of Afghanistan as they claim more rural territory and put increasing pressure on key cities, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.
The Biden administration says there are 20,000 applicants so far, half of whom have not completed initial stages of review for the visas. The United States is also allowing former Afghan employees to bring in close family members.
Rep. Tom McClintock, a California Republican, said the bill would add to what he said would be too-hasty screening and processing as the United States rushes to get the Afghans out. He pointed to security risks for the United States.
“We will not be adequately vetting arrivals under this program,” McClintock said.
Other lawmakers called it essential to future U.S. military endeavors to prove that Americans would stand by local battleground allies. Some urged the U.S. government to open the door wider still to the Afghans who worked with Americans.
“Don’t stop here. Let’s keep going,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat. “These are our friends.”
About 70,000 Afghans have settled in the United States on the special visas since 2008, Tracey Jacobson, the director of the administration’s Afghanistan task force, told reporters on Wednesday.
Currently, the Biden administration plans to start flying 750 of the Afghans furthest along in the visa processing from Kabul to the United States next week, along with their immediate families, Jacobson said.
Those new arrivals will head to Fort Lee, Virginia, for an expected seven to 10 days to complete their processing, authorities said.
The administration hopes to process 4,000 former employees and their immediate families — people much further behind in the process — at U.S. bases in some other country before bringing them to the United States.
Qatar and Kuwait are among the latest countries being mentioned as possible hosts, but U.S. officials said this week they had no agreements to announce yet.
FILE - In this June 25, 2021, file photo, former Afghan interpreters hold placards during a demonstrations against the US government, in front of the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday, July 22, to allow in thousands more of the Afghans who worked alongside Americans in the Afghanistan war, citing the urgency of protecting those on-the-ground allies from Taliban retaliation as the U.S. military withdrawal enters its final weeks. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
Burlington businesses form safe escort program for workers
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The Burlington Business Association is forming a safety escort program for downtown workers leaving their jobs at night, following several late-night violent incidents downtown. Between 10 p.m. at 3 a.m., downtown employees will be able to call for a trained security professional to escort them to their car or transportation, WCAX-TV reported.
“It just would give me peace of mind knowing that they’ve got another set of eyes on their departure,” said Kristin Halvorson of Halvorson’s Restaurant. She was involved in an altercation with a man on Church Street who used a hammer to beat someone who tried to help her.
“The more people on the block, the more vibrant the town is. So, I want people to come here and feel safe and I think this gives a lot of peace of mind,” she said.
The move comes as the Burlington Police Department is addressing budget cuts which it says have led to short-staffing overnight, the news station reported.
The business group is working to find private funding to pay for private security services.
Iowa pork producer: We need year-round immigrant workers
BECAUSE OF REAGAN ERA UNION BUSTING IN THE PACKING PLANT INDUSTRY AFTER MASSIVE CONSOLIDATION
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A top Iowa pork producer is pushing federal lawmakers to allow immigrant workers to stay on the job year-round.
A spokeswoman for Iowa Select Farms — the state’s largest pork producer — told U.S. senators during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday that seasonal employment currently allowed under a federal visa program is insufficient to meet the industry’s needs, the Des Moines Register reported.
Farmers and meatpacking plants are facing severe labor shortages and need immigrant workers to be able to work year-round, said spokeswoman Jen Sorenson.
“If the labor shortage is not addressed, it could lead to farms and packing plants shutting down, causing serious financial harm to the communities in which they operate,” said Sorenson, who’s also president of the National Pork Producers Council.
Wednesday’s hearing focused on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would provide a pathway to legal status for more than 1 million undocumented farmworkers. The U.S. House passed the bill in March.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, also testified at the hearing.
While Sorenson praised the legislation’s call for year-round visas, she urged lawmakers to lift its cap on the number of those visas, saying that would force producers to “compete against one another for the same limited number of year-round visas.”
Montana tribes sue over Indian Education for All compliance
By AMY BETH HANSON
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana tribes and the parents of 18 students filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging state education leaders are violating a constitutional requirement to teach about the unique culture and heritage of Native Americans.
The lawsuit, filed in District Court in Great Falls, seeks an order to require the Board of Public Education to create specific educational standards for the Indian Education for All program and to require the superintendent of public instruction to ensure schools meet those standards and accurately report how they are spending money allocated for the program.
“We need state education administrators to create a system of accountability to ensure every educator teaches this subject in a way that preserves American Indians’ cultural integrity and to ensure the money Montanans voted to invest in Indian Education for All, benefits every student,” Shelly R. Fyant, chair of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, said in a statement.
Sarah Swanson, chief of staff of the Office of Public Instruction, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. McCall Flynn, executive director of the Board of Public Education, said she hadn’t read the complaint and couldn’t comment yet.
Montana’s 1972 Constitution required all public school students to receive education about Native American culture and heritage. The Legislature passed the Indian Education for All Act in 1999, stating it was the policy of the state to “recognize the distinct and unique cultural heritage of American Indians and to be committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural heritage.”
In a 2004 lawsuit over school funding, a state court found that Montana’s educational goals showed no commitment to the preservation of Native American cultural identity.
Funding began being allocated in 2007, but the lawsuit states schools aren’t providing adequate educational programs and face no penalties for spending IEFA funds for other programs.
The complaint argues a 2015 evaluation of how well Indian Education for All was being implemented found Montana did not have sufficient standards, reporting requirements or accountability for spending the funding. It said implementation of IFEA in some school districts was “very minimal.”
The majority of the state’s school districts report to the Office of Public Instruction only the amount of IEFA funding spent each year, and only about 10% report spending their full allocation, the complaint states. Based on the reports, school districts accounted for spending just over 50% of the $6.7 million the legislature allocated for IEFA during fiscal years 2019 and 2020, the complaint states.
During the 2017-18 school year, some schools reported making no Indian Education for All expenditures, the complaint states.
The IEFA requires that schools work with tribes to create educational programs and that school personnel should “have an understanding and awareness of Indian tribes to help them relate effectively with Indian students and parents, that educational personnel provide means by which school personnel will gain and understanding of and appreciation for the American Indian people.” The complaint states there is no mechanism for reporting such cooperation and asks for enforcement of that aspect of the act.
“We want the children in our public schools to grow together with as much effort put towards understanding one another as possible,” said Amber Lamb, a member of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, and a parent of a high school student in Missoula.
“It is important to be educated about historical elements that built the culture we are living in today. If we want a cohesive community, it is necessary to present details and truths about the lives of Indigenous people in order to work together to be a strong community,” Lamb said in a statement. “We want our schools to be safe places where all children feel accepted and open to learning together and about each other.”
In some cases, schools are reporting spending Indian Education for All funding in ways that don’t advance the program, the plaintiffs allege.
An elementary school library in Helena has a book about marmots and their social habits with a sticker inside that states it was purchased in 2007 with IEFA funds. The book does not teach about marmots within the context of cultural significance, relevance or meaning to Native Americans, the complaint states.
One school district used its $150,000 to pay a portion of the librarians’ salary and benefits without explaining how that met IEFA standards, the complaint states.
Another school purchased a book titled “Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving,” which, according to Amazon, “approaches the holiday from an evangelical point of view,” and “shows that the actual hero of the Thanksgiving was neither white nor Indian, but God.” The district reported the book as an IEFA-related purchase.
Home Fires: Volcanic lava sparks decorative design
By KIM COOK In this image provided by Vikur/Agusta Arnardottir, Vikur Studio, founded by artist Agusta Arnarsdottir, offers modern jewelry crafted from pumice found on lava fields around Iceland. (Britt Berden/Vikur/Agusta Arnardottir via AP)
Mother Earth has been blowing off lots of steam lately – as well as ash and a mess of lava. The volcanic eruptions, and the pumice and other rock they leave in their wake, have inspired some remarkable decorative design.
Scores of volcanoes are spewing now, from Indonesia to Alaska, Italy to Iceland, Russia to Indonesia, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History.
Historically, artists and craftspeople who live in volcanically active regions have embraced the magnesium- and iron-rich igneous rocks.
“It’s a rock that’s easily accessible, sitting near to the earth’s surface. It’s self-generating and exceptionally tough,” says design critic and former editor of Wallpaper magazine Laura Houseley. So tough that ancient Romans used it to make concrete for the Pantheon, and to create seawalls.
You might not have the opportunity to see a current lava show, but there’s a lot of great volcano-related stuff for the armchair volcanologist.
The Icelandic store Grapevine has eye-catching casual wear, cups, posters and laptop sleeves printed with images of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, taken by photographer Art Bicnick. An overhead photo of the volcano, taken in March shortly after it began to erupt will bring Mordor to mind for “The Lord of the Rings” fans.
On Etsy, Magdalena Donahue of the New Mexico-based studio FactsFiguresDesigns characterizes her offerings as “wearable Earth.” The clothing and accessories are printed with imagery inspired by open-source scientific data like topographic maps, seismic readings, magnetic fields, mineral patterns and lava flows.
Agusta Arnardottir of the Reykjavik- and London-based studio Vikur crafts modern minimalist jewelry out of silver, gold and small pieces of pumice (vikur is the Icelandic word for pumice) from the base of Hekla, one of the island’s recurrent volcanoes. There’s a photo on the studio’s Instagram page of Arnardottir clambering over Hekla’s debris field, bags of pebbles in hand.
Gjoska, a design firm and shop in the Icelandic countryside, offers a beautiful sweater with a background of basalt-hued gray and a fiery orange and red sliver tumbling down the front. They’ve got hats and other garments with the design, too.
Los Angeles-based architect Gulla Jonsdottir has designed a collection of furniture inspired by the landscape of her Icelandic homeland.
Her Volca table is a solid rectangle of alabaster, with a fissure of rose gold transecting the surface. A bar stool perches on polished rose gold legs, the leather seat enveloped in oil-rubbed bronze that’s been carved to look like the silhouette of molten rock. The Lava table perches a fold of bronze on a raw-edged chunk of marble, as if the molten rock had seized and stopped in mid flow.
Signature Hardware offers a couple of elegant vessel sinks suitable for bath or powder rooms. Both the round Loa and square Mauna are carved of a single piece of andesite, a type of volcanic rock found in areas of Asia, the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific Northwest.
CB2’s set of Loa drink coasters, and their Hilo tray, are crafted of Indonesian lava stone. The tray has a checkered pattern achieved through melding the stone with resin. Also at CB2, a striking piece of wall art carved from Philippine volcanic ash; Athena’s angular folds and creases make it look like origami.
London architectural products studio Dzek spent three years working on a volcanic ash-glazed porcelain tile. They’ve called the collection ExCinere, a play on the Latin term ex cinere, meaning “from ash.” Available in two sizes, the earthy, richly textured tiles come in four volcanic glazes ranging from light caramel to dark chocolate.
Artisans in Tecali, Mexico, have been carving volcanic stone into building facades and objects for generations. Online shop Maison Numen carries hand-carved molcajete, or mortar and pestle, and a platter that would be a nice piece for entertaining.
If you’re interested in collectibles, sites like Etsy.com have some great examples of midcentury ceramics made by Iceland’s Glit Pottery. The studio, founded in the 1950s, was known for incorporating pumice, lava rock and ash into their glazes, creating an unusual juxtaposition between the polished, colorful ceramics and the natural volcanic material.
Former banker-turned-ceramicist Bjarni Sigurdsson uses a similar technique in his work; for his Ash Cloud vase collection, he added cinders from the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull to the finishing glaze.
Manhattan is seen from Yankee Stadium through a haze of smoke before a baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees, Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in New York. Wildfires in the American West, including one burning in Oregon that's currently the largest in the U.S., are creating hazy skies as far away as New York as the massive infernos spew smoke and ash into the air in columns up to six miles high. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Smoke and ash from massive wildfires in the American West clouded the sky and led to air quality alerts Wednesday on parts of the East Coast as the effects of the blazes were felt 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) away.
Strong winds blew smoke east from California, Oregon, Montana and other states all the way to other side of the continent. Haze hung over New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The nation’s largest wildfire, Oregon’s Bootleg Fire, grew to 618 square miles (1,601 square kilometers) — just over half the size of Rhode Island. Fires also burned on both sides of California’s Sierra Nevada and in Washington state and other areas of the West.
The smoke blowing to the East Coast was reminiscent of last fall, when large blazes burning in Oregon’s worst wildfire season in recent memory choked the local sky with pea-soup smoke but also affected air quality several thousand miles away. So far this year, Seattle and Portland have largely been spared the foul air.
People in parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and elsewhere with heart disease, asthma and other health issues were told to avoid the outdoors. Air quality alerts for parts of the region were in place through Thursday.
“One of the things about this event that makes it so remarkable is that the smoke is affecting such a large swath of the U.S,” said Jesse Berman, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and an expert on air quality. “You’re not just seeing localized and perhaps upstate New York being affected, but rather you’re seeing numerous states all along the East Coast that are being impacted.”
David Lawrence, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said wildfire smoke usually thins out by the time it reaches the East Coast, but this summer it’s “still pretty thick.”
In California, a wildfire burning completely uncontained south of Lake Tahoe crossed the state line into Nevada. New voluntary evacuation orders were issued for portions of Douglas County, Nevada.
The Tamarack Fire, started by lightning in Alpine County, California, has now burned more than 68 square miles (176 square kilometers). Authorities say more than 1,200 firefighters are battling the blaze, which has destroyed at least 10 structures.
Meanwhile, Oregon on Wednesday banned all campfires on state-managed lands and in state campgrounds east of Interstate 5, the major highway that is commonly considered the dividing line between the wet western part of the state and the dry eastern half.
The regulation includes the designated fire rings at campsites, as well as candles and tiki torches. Propane grills are still allowed, but the state still urged campers to pack food that doesn’t require heating or cooking.
The lightning-caused Oregon fire has ravaged the sparsely populated southern part of the state and has been expanding by up to 4 miles (6 kilometers) a day, pushed by gusting winds and critically dry weather that’s turned trees and undergrowth into a tinderbox.
Fire crews have had to retreat from the flames for 10 consecutive days as fireballs jump from treetop to treetop, trees explode, embers fly ahead of the fire to start new blazes and, in some cases, the inferno’s heat creates its own weather of shifting winds and dry lightning. Monstrous clouds of smoke and ash have risen up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) into the sky and are visible for more than 100 air miles (161 kilometers).
Authorities in Oregon said lower winds and temperatures allowed crews to improve fire lines, and they hoped to make more progress Wednesday. The fire was approaching an old burn area on its active southeastern flank, raising hopes it would not spread as much.
The blaze, which is being fought by more than 2,200 people, is about one-third contained. It was within a few hundred acres of becoming Oregon’s third-largest wildfire in modern history.
At least 2,000 homes have been evacuated at some point during the fire and an additional 5,000 threatened. At least 70 homes and more than 100 outbuildings have burned, but no one is known to have died.
Extremely dry conditions and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
While Berman is hopeful that the smoke will last only a couple of days, he said we may see more of it due to climate change.
“We fully expect that you’re going to see more situations where smoke, from fires occurring farther away, is going to travel long distances and affect people in other parts of the country,” Berman said. “I would not be surprised at all if these events did become more frequent in the future.”
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Associated Press video journalists Haven Daley in Minden, Nevada, and David Martin in New York City contributed to this report. Follow Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.
By DARIA LITVINOVA and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV 1 of 14 FILE - In this Saturday, July 17, 2021 file photo, volunteers prepare to douse a forest fire in the republic of Sakha also known as Yakutia, Russia Far East. Russia has been plagued by widespread forest fires, blamed on unusually high temperatures and the neglect of fire safety rules, with Sakha-Yakutia in northeastern Siberia being the worst affected region lately. Each year, thousands of wildfires engulf wide swathes of Russia, destroying forests and shrouding broad territories in acrid smoke. This summer has seen particularly massive fires in Yakutia in northeastern Siberia following unprecedented heat. (AP Photo/Ivan Nikiforov, File)
MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands of wildfires engulf broad expanses of Russia each year, destroying forests and shrouding regions in acrid smoke.
Northeastern Siberia has had particularly massive fires this summer amid record-setting heat. Many other regions across the vast country also have battled wildfires.
Some factors behind Russia’s endemic wildfires and their consequences: RECORD HEAT
In recent years, Russia has recorded high temperatures that many scientists regard as a clear result of climate change. The hot weather has caused permafrost to melt and fueled a growing number of fires.
The vast Sakha-Yakutia region of Siberia has had a long spell of extremely hot and dry weather this summer, with temperatures reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) and setting records for several days. The heat wave helped spark hundreds of fires, which so far have scorched more than 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of land, making it the worst-affected region in Russia.
The fires have shrouded Yakutia’s cities, towns and villages in thick smoke, forcing authorities to briefly suspend flights at the regional capital’s airport. The Defense Ministry deployed transport planes and helicopters to help douse the flames.
Fedot Tumusov, a member of the Russian parliament who represents the region, called the blazes “unprecedented” in their scope. MONITORING DIFFICULTIES
The forests that cover huge areas of Russia make monitoring and quickly spotting new fires a daunting task.
In 2007, a federal network to spot fires from aircraft was disbanded and had its assets turned over to regional authorities. The much-criticized change resulted in the program’s rapid deterioration.
The government later reversed the move and reestablished the federal agency in charge of monitoring forests from the air. However, its resources remain limited, making it hard to survey the massive forests of Siberia and the Far East.
NEGLECT OF FIRE SAFETY RULES
While some wildfires are sparked by lightning, experts estimate that over 70% of them are caused by people, from carelessly discarding cigarettes to abandoned campfires, but there are other causes.
Authorities regularly conduct controlled burns, setting a fire to clear the way for new vegetation or to deprive unplanned wildfires of fuel. Observers say such intentional burns often are poorly managed and sometimes trigger bigger blazes instead of containing them.
Farmers also use the same technique to burn grass and small trees on agricultural lands. Such burns regularly get out of control. ARSON
Activists and experts say that fires are often set deliberately to cover up evidence of illegal lumbering or to create new places for timber harvesting under the false pretext of clearing burned areas.
Activists in Siberia and the Far East allege such arson is driven by strong demand for timber in the colossal Chinese market, and they have called for a total ban on timber exports to China.
Officials have acknowledged the problem and pledged to tighten oversight, but Russia’s far-flung territory and regulatory loopholes make it hard to halt the illegal activity.
Critics blame the 2007 forest code that gave control over timberlands to regional authorities and businesses, eroding centralized monitoring, fueling corruption and contributing to illegal tree-cutting practices that help spawn fires. CONTROVERSIAL REGULATIONS
Russian law allows authorities to let wildfires burn in certain areas if the potential damage is considered not worth the costs of containing them.
Critics have long assailed the provision, arguing it encourages inaction by authorities and slows firefighting efforts so a blaze that could have been extinguished at a relatively small cost is often allowed to burn uncontrolled.
“They eventually have to extinguish it anyway, but the damage and the costs are incomparable,” said Mikhail Kreindlin of Greenpeace Russia.
LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES
In addition to destroying trees, wildfires also kill wildlife and pose a threat to human health by polluting the air.
Carbon emissions from fires and the destruction of forests, which are a major source of oxygen, also contribute to global warming and its potentially catastrophic impact.
This year’s fires in Siberia already have emitted more carbon than those in some previous years, according to Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
He said the peat fires that are common in Siberia and many other Russian regions are particularly harmful in terms of emissions because peat has been absorbing carbon for tens of thousands of years.
“Then it’s releasing all that carbon back into the atmosphere,” Parrington said.
While pledging adherence to the Paris agreement on climate change, Russian officials often underline the key role played by their forests in slowing down global warming. However, regular wildfires have the opposite effect, dramatically boosting carbon emissions.
“They emphasize that huge areas are covered by forests but neglect the effect of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from fires,” Greenpeace’s Kreindlin said.
FILE - In this Monday, July 19, 2021 file photo, smoke from a forest fire covers Yakustk, the capital of the republic of Sakha also known as Yakutia, Russia Far East. Each year, thousands of wildfires engulf wide swathes of Russia, destroying forests and shrouding broad territories in acrid smoke. This summer has seen particularly massive fires in Yakutia in northeastern Siberia following unprecedented heat. (AP Photo/Yevgeny Sofroneyev, File)
