Rim Fire

[Meadow Skipper]

^^^Did you mean to link to a different YubaNet article?

[~mikey b]

Bow season starts tomorrow. Hunters all over 108 corridor today.

[bodywhomper]

^^^Did you mean to link to a different YubaNet article?

thanks. i edited my post to add the correct link. here it is: http://yubanet.com/regional/Studies-...p#.U-7Ic_ldX_F

briefly discussing with a friend, the headline is a bit misleading. it's interesting that geos institute is a pretty legit org, but this is all suspicious, to me, because of the one individual's involvement.

hell, for all i know, the outlier is in the right.....

[~mikey b]

SPI has been getting the cut out. Rim Fire lumber.

[GiBo]

I drive by a shit ton of burnt Rim Fire logs at the Port of Stockton. They ship them to mills in China, Japan and Korea.

[Meathelmet]

I drive by a shit ton of burnt Rim Fire logs at the Port of Stockton. They ship them to mills in China, Japan and Korea.

What do they do of the logs? Do they use it for some special purposes like cladding / decorative woodwork or what? Apparently there is demand
for some bug killed trees for decoration and stuff..but burned logs?

[~mikey b]

They mill it into lumber. Bark burnt timber is ok, just messier.

[~mikey b]

http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/08/27/...=/99/217/&rh=1

[Tippster]

Whenever I see this thread get bumped I still think

[~mikey b]

fucking asshole


http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Lo...ainst-Emerald#

The charges against a Columbia man accused by federal prosecutors of starting 2013’s Rim Fire were dropped Friday.



Following the deaths of two key witnesses, the case was not strong enough to convict Keith Emerald, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

Emerald, 33, was indicted by a federal grand jury in August for allegedly violating a forest order banning campfires, letting a campfire escape and lying to investigators.

“Since that time, two witnesses whom the Government deemed necessary for the trial in this case have unexpectedly passed away. Their previous statements are now inadmissible hearsay which cannot be used as evidence in trial,” according to a statement from Wagner’s office.

The first witness died in February in a workplace accident, the statement said. That witness was expected to provide trial testimony concerning his interactions with Emerald shortly after Emerald was rescued from the Rim Fire origin area.

The second died in March of cardiac arrest, the statement said. That person was the helicopter pilot who first responded to the area where the Rim Fire started. He was expected to testify about communications concerning the discovery of the fire and Emerald’s rescue.

Emerald, who was bow hunting in the Clavey River canyon, was rescued by a Cal Fire helicopter crew shortly after the fire was discovered. Prosecutors alleged he was the only person in the area.

Wagner’s office declined to confirm the identities of the dead witnesses.

However, Tanden Olsen, of Sonora, a friend of Emerald, matches the description of one.

Olsen died Feb. 18 following an industrial accident in Amador County. He was operating a boom lift on an Amador Water Agency supply line project near the Mokelumne River on Feb. 2 and suffered traumatic brain injury from an accidental fall, according to Placer County Chief Deputy Coroner Dennis Watt.

According to a search warrant affidavit earlier released by prosecutors, Olsen said he drove Emerald back to his truck the day the fire started, Aug. 17, 2013.

During that ride, Emerald allegedly told Olsen he started a campfire that got out of control and started the wildfire, according to the affidavit.

The second witness matches the description of Jerold “Jerry” Bonner, an Alta Helitack Base pilot stationed outside Los Gatos.

Bonner, 72, was named in the same search warrant document released with the announcement of Emerald’s indictment in August.

Emerald told Bonner and others on the helicopter the day he was saved that he caused a rockslide that might have sparked the blaze and, later, said it might’ve been caused by marijuana growers, according to the search warrant document.

Bonner was found dead March 6 inside his Helitack Base barracks of a heart attack, according to the U.S. Fire Administration’s website on firefighter fatalities.

During the course of the investigation, before charges were filed, Emerald signed a confession saying he accidentally started the fire while cooking beans and burning trash at a campsite.

However, Emerald pleaded not guilty in August. He said that he was coerced by investigators into confessing.

According to Emerald’s attorneys, during the interrogation, investigators told Emerald he would be vigorously prosecuted if he didn’t change his initial explanation of how the fire started. He’d told them it started with a rockslide, but later signed a confession saying he accidentally started it while cooking.

A judge was set this month to hear a motion by Emerald’s attorneys to suppress the confession.

Wagner’s office on Friday declined to answer questions about the decision to drop the case.

He issued the following prepared statement: “I appreciate the hard work done by the U.S. Forest Service in investigating this case, and I understand that the government’s motion to dismiss will be frustrating to some. However, when circumstances change after indictment, and our judgment is that a case is no longer likely to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, it is our obligation to the defendant and to the Court to dismiss that case.”

Emerald’s attorney, federal defender Janet Bateman, could not be reached for comment.

The Rim Fire burned 257,314 acres split mostly between the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park. It destroyed 11 houses and 98 outbuildings, caused 10 injuries and cost $127.3 million to fight.

[splat]

Hey, Mike - you guys get those water trucks signed up for this year?
I can still add resources to my bid award, but not for long.

[~mikey b]

Those guys are a liability. All talk no action.

[bodywhomper]

People are looking for a water tender? The north san juan fire dept was selling one of theirs back in the early winter. Not sure if its still around....

On a slightly diff note, it looks like usfs is changing (or has changed?) its budget structure. Suppression funding won't jeopardize funding for other programs? Anybody know if this is actually true? It has been a huge problem in the past.

Also, is Hansen still suing the usfs eis for its salvage lumber program for the rim fire?

[LightRanger]

Also, is Hansen still suing the usfs eis for its salvage lumber program for the rim fire?

That was still going last I heard, but haven't looked recently. Your USFS budgeting rumor sounds nice.

[TacocaT]

On a slightly diff note, it looks like usfs is changing (or has changed?) its budget structure. Suppression funding won't jeopardize funding for other programs? Anybody know if this is actually true? It has been a huge problem in the past.

Still working through congress. Seems fairly popular but you know how these things go.