With the National Interagency Fire Center reporting that 63,623 wildfires have consumed over 4 million acres of land as of August 7, the year 2000 is quickly proving to be the most destructive since 1988 when over 7 million acres were claimed by fires. National firefighting efforts and resources are already strained with over 12,000 firefighters, smokejumpers and military personnel deployed in the West. Considering that vast portions of the nation are experiencing record temperatures and droughts, and that the calendar year is just now entering the normal wildfire season, this year may go down as the worst for wildfires in over half a century.   More  

In May 2000, the country, and New Mexico in particular, held its breath as raging fires encroached upon the town of Los Alamos, home of the atomic bomb and America's nuclear secrets. The fires were not the result of a cigarette butt tossed carelessly out a car window or of lightning striking a dead tree, but were deliberately set by the National Park Service to prevent worse fires. Under normal conditions, the fires are carefully controlled and burn out underbrush and other tinder to prevent much larger natural fires. But intense winds and dry conditions led to a disaster, burning 47,000 acres and hundreds of homes.   More  

The good news is that more Americans own their home than ever before. The bad news, many argue, is that many of those homes are located in large new suburban developments - the result of sprawl. As people live farther and farther away from urban centers and older suburbs, environmentalists say more problems are created - previously undeveloped land is gobbled up by developers for housing tracts and shopping centers, and residents of these new suburbs must drive longer distances to both go to work and to run errands.   More  

A General Accounting Office (GAO) report released in April, 1999, estimated that 19 million acres of rural land had been developed between 1970 to 1990. Huge chunks of redevelopment had taken place in areas that were originally covered with farmland and forests. Is green space a dying national resource? Whose responsibility is it to save green space in areas where developers tend to buy up large chunks of land and chop them up into densely zoned chessboards of two-acre lots?   More