Fire Suppression Pictures

Bill Bebee, Izard County EMD: Have disaster? Will travel.

The devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri.

A large, unstoppable forest fire in Arizona.

When we hear of a huge disaster, most of us are anxious to see photos and learn of deaths or injuries.

But Bill Beebe immediately starts thinking about what's being done to save lives and protect the injured and homeless.

"I just start thinking about what the immediate needs must be and what would be the first things I would do if I was there," said Bebee.

Bebee, who came on board in January as Izard County Emergency Management Director, has more than 20 years experience responding to disasters all over the country.

"I grew up in a small town south of Helena," said Beebe, "and I went to the University of Arkansas Forestry School at Monticello."

His first job out of college was working as a forester in the Hardy area.

"I remember getting a call from my boss one night, telling me to meet him downtown (in Hardy)," Bebee recalls. "I asked what for and he told me there was a forest fire and we were going to put it out."

It was his first inkling that "fire suppression" was going to become a big part of his life.

According to Bebee, in the 1970s, Arkansas averaged 7,000 forest fires a year, one of the highest rates in the nation.

"We fought fires all the time and I started enjoying it," said Bebee.

Bebee also had a thing for Alaska and, after spending a summer there as a young adult, he vowed to live there one day.

After working for about nine years as a forester in Arkansas, Bebee landed a forestry job in Alaska and his family set out for the 49th state.

Initially, Bebee worked in land management, selling state land, dealing with water rights, and homesteading and timber sale programs.

As he progressed through the ranks, Bebee wound up as a Coastal Fire Management Officer, responsible for managing 115 million acres of south Alaska. His territory included Juneau, the state capitol and Anchorage, the most populous areas of the state, and some of the most remote wilderness areas, where fire is a constant threat.

"I began working extensively with the Division of Emergency Services and spent months traveling and working to control forest fires," Bebee said. "The "off season," winter months when snow set in, I would finally get back to the office and catch up on paperwork and management stuff.

Fire Suppression = A Decline in Biodiversity (Part 2–The Animals ...

Southern fox squirrels differ in their habitat requirements from northern fox squirrels, despite being the same species.  The former prefer mature longleaf pine savannahs with fingers of oak forests, while the latter thrive in oak/hickory woods.  Fox squirrels are declining in Georgia because longleaf pine savannahs were largely replaced with shorter rotation loblolly pine tree farms.  Lumber companies harvest loblolly pines every 50 years which is not enough time for trees to develop snags.  The Trees are also planted closely and fire is suppressed.  Gray squirrels are more abundant today in state because they’re well adapted to the dense young forests that have sprouted on abandoned agricultural lands.  Gray squirrels escape predation by jumping from tree top to tree top, while fox squirrels prefer to dash on the ground as far as they can before retreating to a tree.  Though clumsy in trees compared to their smaller cousins, their larger size allows them to put up more of a fight, if a predator catches up to them.  This difference in behavior explains why gray squirrels occur in closed canopy forests, and fox squirrels prefer open parkland forests.  For this reason I think fox squirrels were more abundant in this region during the Pleistocene when open environments were common.  Areas managed for red-cockaded woodpeckers should benefit fox squirrels.  Forest managers used longer rotations and fire to maintain the bird’s required habitat.

Red Cockaded Woodpecker– ( Picoides borealis