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Support grows to keep air tankers Smith cites Quartz Fire in call to stop Medford base closure By PAUL FATTIG U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., has asked Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth to reconsider agency plans to close its air tanker base at the Medford airport this fall. In a letter sent to Bosworth on Thursday, Smith requested that the decision be postponed in the aftermath of the Quartz Fire, which burned more than 6,100 acres in the Little Applegate River drainage last month. Current plans call for relocating the base to Klamath Falls after this fire season as part of a cost-cutting move. "Many in the Rogue Valley are understandably concerned about how fighting the Quartz Fire would have been hampered had the aerial firefighting operations been based outside of Medford," Smith wrote. "To address these concerns, the Forest Service needs to postpone the closure of the Medford air-tanker base until it conducts a comprehensive review explaining the likely impacts of such a move," he added. Both Smith and 2nd District Congressman Greg Walden, R-Hood River, also have sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee asking that it include base postponement provisions in the upcoming Interior Appropriations bill. Those provisions would direct the regional office of the Forest Service to postpone the base's closure until a review is completed. "The Quartz Fire serves as a strong reminder of the need for constant vigilance and rapid response in the face of wildfires in areas of unnaturally high fuel loads," Smith said in a prepared statement Thursday. "Given the significance of the wildfire risks in Southern Oregon, I believe that the Forest Service must do its utmost to assure Oregonians that public safety is the priority guiding any reorganization of air-tanker base operations." The agency's decision to close the base has drawn opposition from the boards of commissioners in Jackson and Josephine counties as well as the local chambers of commerce and others. The response time from the Klamath Falls base would be seven to 15 minutes longer when an air tanker is deployed to drop fire retardant on a wildfire in Jackson and Josephine counties, opponents said. That delay could mean the loss of large sections of local forests as well as rural homes, they noted. But Forest Service officials say the decision was made after closely examining safety issues, cost savings and efficiency. Its tankers would continue to provide fire protection in southwestern Oregon, officials said. The agency expects to save up to $1 million a year by closing the base. Announced last year, the decision, which includes designing and constructing a primary air-tanker base in Klamath Falls, came after a three-year study by the agency and the Pacific Northwest Wildland Fire Coordinating Group, which represents firefighters throughout the region. If the Medford base closes as planned, tankers will be deployed out of Klamath Falls, Redmond and Redding, Calif., during the fire season. The Medford airport has served as a tanker base since the early 1950s, shortly after the Forest Service began using planes to help snuff out wildfires with fire retardant. Red-bellied air tankers taking off from Medford have historically covered the area from the coast to the crest of the Cascade Mountains, and from Yreka, Calif., north to Roseburg. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.