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SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 As wildfires ravage the U.S. West, Republican Senate candidate Mitt Romney has called for more logging and a high-tech early detection system in a plan that was met with some skepticism.<\/p>\n
Romney, a candidate in Utah, said in an essay that more logging would thin out forests and clear dead timber so fires have less fuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the devastation of wildfires were being caused by a foreign enemy rather than by natural causes, we would do and spend whatever it took to stop it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also advocated for thinning out forests in a USA Today op-ed published Wednesday, as California fights its largest wildfire in state history.<\/p>\n
Zinke took aim at \u201cradical environmentalists,\u201d who oppose logging, but Romney said there could be common ground if stopping fires meant saving animals and habitat.<\/p>\n
Romney\u2019s Democratic Senate opponent Jenny Wilson lauded protective measures but said Romney\u2019s plan misses the mark by not specifically addressing climate change-linked factors such as warmer weather and drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must address climate change as a national crisis in order to protect the American West,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Romney said he also wants to beef up regional firefighter resources and create an early detection system of drones, satellites and sensors. Romney\u2019s campaign didn\u2019t provide additional detail on his ideas.<\/p>\n
Fire experts said an early detection system isn\u2019t at the top of their wish list. The Utah governor\u2019s office agreed with most of Romney\u2019s plan but said most wildfires are spotted and suppressed quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that prevention, preparedness and suppression response capacity should be the top priorities for investment,\u201d said Paul Edwards, deputy chief of staff for communications and policy.<\/p>\n
Such a system would likely be expensive and would only help with a small portion of wildfires \u2014 ones that start at night when people are asleep and are fast-moving near urban areas, said Tom Cova, director of the University of Utah\u2019s Center for Natural and Technological Hazards<\/p>\n
\u201cDetection of wildfires is not really a problem,\u201d Cova said. More logging would help but wouldn\u2019t solve the problem, he said.<\/p>\n
Firefighters use human spotters in lookout towers. There are also cameras placed on existing cell towers on mountaintops in many Western states, including Nevada and California, said Jessica Gardetto, spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. Money spent thinning forests of weeds and other vegetation, especially near buildings, is well spent, she said.<\/p>\n
Wildfires are a confluence of many factors, including longer, hotter summers, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing more of a fire year whereas we were seeing fire seasons in the past,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Nearly 1,000 fires large and small have been sparked in Utah alone this year, costing some $60 million to fight, the state said.<\/p>\n
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Re Blog from<\/strong><\/span>:-<\/p>\n Daily Journal<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.dailyjournal.net\/2018\/08\/08\/us-romney-wildfires\/<\/a><\/p>\n Associated Press reported Brady McCombs contributed to this report.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”10″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”] [\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n and<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button admin_label=”Button” button_url=”http:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/?p=30751″ url_new_window=”off” button_text=”Back to the innovation blog” button_alignment=”center” background_layout=”light” custom_button=”on” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ button_text_size=”12″] [\/et_pb_button][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”60″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”] [\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Boob-for-upgrade.gif” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” url=”http:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/first-responders-support-blog\/”] [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Sidebar” orientation=”right” area=”et_pb_widget_area_1″ background_layout=”light” remove_border=”off”] [\/et_pb_sidebar][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”on” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”off” author=”off” date=”off” categories=”off” comments=”off” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”background” parallax_effect=”off” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”center” text_color=”light” text_background=”on” text_bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.56)” module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” title_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 As wildfires ravage the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fire-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33105,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33103\/revisions\/33105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Develop your innovation skills<\/span><\/h4>\n
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