In addition to burning more than 1,000 homes and hundreds of thousands of wildland, the Southern California firestorm of 2007 has reignited an ongoing debate about fire policy. The issue is beginning to appear in the press, with UC scientists providing much of the expertise and opinions.

Salon.com ran an article titled "A burning question" which quoted UC Riverside fire ecologist Richard Minnich, UC Berkeley wildland fire specialist Max Moritz, and UC Davis plant ecologist Michael Barbour. Minnich said he believes California's fire suppression policy in the last 100 years is behind the tremendous devastation...

The news media are continuing to use University of California Cooperative Extension as a source of information on fire issues. In a New York Times article, UC Riverside earth sciences professor Richard A. Minnich raises the sometimes controversial issue of the state's fire policy.

“California has lost 1.5 million acres in the last four years,” Minnich is quoted in the second paragraph of the article. “When do we declare the policy a failure?”

The article presents the argument that California has gigantic fires from time to time because of its fire suppression policies — in which the government has kept fires from their normal cycle —...

An online publication, "Computer World - The voice of IT management," ran an interesting story today on the use of high-tech tools such as GPS technology, satellite imaging systems and aerial photography in fighting the Southern California fires and managing evacuations. For the story, reporter Todd Weiss spoke to two UC Cooperative Extension experts.

Glenn Nader, the natural resources advisor for UCCE Yuba City, said one technology that continues to help firefighters is geographic information system mapping data, which can be combined in layers to provide details on topography, fire history, roads,...

In California's current fire frenzy, reporters seem to be focusing on the breaking news, speaking mostly to firefighters and evacuees. Once the embers begin to cool and analysis begins, they will likely turn to UC experts, among others, to try to tease out reasons for the devastation and how to prevent it in the future.

Already, UC ANR experts have been tapped by two media outlets. ABC 30 News in the Bay Area spoke to UC Berkeley fire science professor Scott Stephens. He noted that, until the wind dies down, crews can only take a defensive position, and get people out of harms way.

"It's constantly jumping from one place...