Westerners, who are accustomed to aggressive firefighting under previous administrations, complain Clinton-Gore environmental policies are crippling efforts to extinguish forest fires in their states -- some of which have been burning for two months.

Among the environmental impediments to stopping the blazes:

• Firefighters at Clear Creek, Idaho, say federal officials "stopped the whole fire line to look at sensitive plants to make sure proper riparian and stream management was followed" -- adding that the Forest Service shut down firefighting "for a day or two."

• The use of bulldozers to draw fire lines is being severely restricted to avoid scarring the land -- forcing firefighters to chop trees by hand.

• The use of fire retardant is prohibited near Montana streams containing Bull trout, which is listed as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act.

• And it is reported that federal officials forced firefighters to stop pumping water from one stream because the loss of water elevated the temperature and hurt the trout; but observers say the water is now completely gone and everything in the stream died anyway.

Firefighter Charlie Parke says federal officials are also reluctant to drag chopped wood out of fire areas because environmentalists are accusing them of "logging." He said officials are even reluctant to use logging equipment because of the criticism.

Source: Audrey Hudson, "Environmental Laws Curb Firefighting," Washington Times, September 1, 2000.