ordered that hundreds of lightening fires be allowed to rage unchecked during He remained a consultant to the Livermore Laboratory until his death.[4]. I've seen several pictures the last few days, showing complete subdivisions burned down. I'm guessing either the homes burned due to falling embers landing on the roofs, or fire from the underbrush within the forests reached the houses. Say what you want about "greedy corporations," but the people they employ need the jobs. Entire trees are grabbed, felled, de-limbed, and cut to length by one piece of equipment that easily maneuvers between the trees. KSCO aired a two-hour retrospective of Wattenburgs radio career. [5] He published numerous articles in scientific journals and continued to do research as an adjunct professor at Cal State, Chico. government would have been paid millions for the dead trees.). So that they can harvest them (the logging companies)sooner? Tom Daschle fearing that he wouldn't get re-elected put his state on the fast track to having his forest's thinned. Very few natural fires can occur today because most of our forests are not in The Lately, Wattenburg hosted a show at KSCO-AM in Santa Cruz, which announced his death on Saturday. We called him last year (1989) when he was on the radio in San Franciscowe just needed his equipment on the fire. When our forests were in fire fires can be allowed to burn in off-peak times because they will be limited in area by burning down the house. And what a counterbalance he was. For every tree that is felled they plant two, however they space them apart properly which results in healthier faster growing trees. However, after signing the bill, there were soon indications Defiant National Park Service bureaucrats, humming their . Then everyone wonders why there is no affordable housing, why roads are gridlocked and air pollution (from cars driving in stop and go traffic for up to 100 miles) gets worse. Bill Wattenburg, a former nuclear weapons designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who hosted a popular late-night show on KGO radio for 39 years, has died of cancer at age 82. After all, this so called overgrowth is habitat for many creatures that would not have it if it was removed. excessive numbers of small trees. than would have been required to construct protective fire breaks and conduct controlled Currently, 84 large fires and complexes have burned 2.5 million acres in 9 states. This unnatural fuel load creates intensely hot forest U.S. Bush's so called Healthy Forests Initiative" is nothing more than a giveaway to big timber, that comes at a high price to the taxpayer and forest ecosystems. [This message has been edited by Erik (edited 10-27-2003).]. natural fires of long ago seldom reached the lower limbs of big trees which Once they were let go or retired, KGO turned full blown liberal/progressive. Massive agency that deliberately incinerated 320,000 hectares of our most beautiful national park rich ecology is a ghastly example of horrible judgment that the let forest fires incineration of many of our forests and all living things therein. who insist that they are the only ones who have Calif. With a good antenna and radio and great skip from the clouds I often received him clearly and never left the radio when he was on. fires before they joined up and became an unstoppable fire storm. Willard Harvey Wattenburg (February 9, 1936 - August 2, 2018) [1] was an American inventor, engineer, author, and talk radio show host from California. Many of his ideas, such as using flatbed rail cars as temporary bridges,[6] unenergized electric water heaters for storage of emergency potable water, and converting plow blades into minesweepers are deceptively simple variants of prior art or folk technology. Had a Trump sign on him front lawn. The reason the logging industry wants to get at the large growth, because of the higher profit margin. We use hype. From a Chico native. He warned us about the ecofreaks and how we were set up for these wild fires not to mention many other issues. Should have listened to him back then! the taxpayers to protect our forests. People's attitude toward money is amazing. burn which they know can result in the total incineration of many of our forests and I agree Songman,That is what I said in the original post. The cruel irony is that any camper who lets an uncontrolled campfire burn His colleagues knew better than to oppose him, and the forest's of his state are now safe. NYC confirmed COVID-19 deaths 6840, probable deaths additional 4059. The Daily Post has been adjudicated by the Superior Court of Santa Clara County as a newspaper of general circulation in the City of Palo Alto and County of Santa Clara, and is qualified to publish legal notices, including: Fictitious Business Name Statements (FBNs) Forest Service: 'Military Personnel Mobilized to Provide Wildfire OK, raise your hand, how many of you want to live in a city of nothing but high-rise, expensive, crampt housing? However these current fires are mainly in areas where ground cover is mainly brush. Not scientific, not logical. burn, or setting fires during high fire season with the present incendiary I've even heard rumors that terrorists are behind it. It's a viable option in may cases. Library Group plan. For those not familiar with current forestry practices, modern logging uses newfangled equipment to take out exactly the trees desired, Yes, its called "get the oldest most profitable trees". Actually, yes. Both serve their purpose. R.I.P. It takes periods of time longer than since Columbus first set foot on this continent for forest ecologies to mature and stabilize. Enjoyed Dr. Bill nights on KGO and learned so much. forests, as the 1988 Yellowstone fire demonstrated. They had two daughters. I don't advocate getting rid of environmentalists. On his show, Wattenburg answered questions about everything from car repairs to physics and often would help kids who called in with homework questions. There is a precedent to this official stupidity. selected U.S. This plan is called the Rest in Radio paradise Dr. we will miss you! The taxpayers must now pay to remove them. The hunter may face some sort of charge but the other two will definitely face criminal charges including murder as several people have died as a result of this fire. During the 1990s, the U.S. Treasury paid $31.6 million in legal fees for environmental cases filed against the government. be renewed. The DEP had fined some guy for renting a bobcat and making a fire break to save his home. There is also a place for selective cutting and timber management. This is the only sensible and sane let forest fires According to them, any logging, even to thin the forests Service by Publication Electrical storms of that magnitude are a rarity in California, which typically sees about 80,000 lightning strikes a year, according to the National Lightning Detection Network. A 1999 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office found that 39 million acres across the West are "at high risk of catastrophic fire." They often throw caution to the winds in order resource for our economy also provides the money to clean our forests and return They now propose to do exactly what they stopped at a time when the The official policy now is that roads environmental staff under Al Gore actually notified the regional U.S. Building catches fire near BWL's Erickson Power Plant - WILX http://www.pushback.com/environment/forests/, http://www.pushback.com/Wattenburg/articles/NowTheyHaveBurnedLosAlamos.html, Fiero-Performance.com - New mods for your Fiero from Fiero Performance Bayern in Germany, http://www.envirotruth.org/sacbeeApril2001.cfm. forestcleansing ground fires (usually caused by lightening) reduced the combustible Dr. Bill Wattenburg uses his unbelievably vast scientific knowledge to share with his audience simple solutions to complex problems. Same for the fires that tore through the Walker River area near the CA-NV border last year. These fires should be natural, not manmade. These tree farms are not natural. service officials wouldnt listen. forced the cutting of hundreds of thousands of green trees on other forests to The Sierra club along with it's spinoff organizations file lawsuits every time someone wants to clear brush or trees. The articval fails to provide any evidence for it's allegations. Bill Wattenberg | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn that only natural fires can cleanse our forests and renew them. BW was my favorite before Rush Limbaugh but he was the best on sheer knowledge and logic. ------------------Question wonder and be wierdare you kind? Copyright 2023, The Daily Post. This is what happened Phone . I remember he kept warning us that the Sierra Club policies were going to cause huge forest fires, massive forest fires and lookhe was right! My prayers go out to his family. hundred million dollars to clean up the forests and save the ecology of btw taxes support firefighterstax cuts hurt firefighters. Thank you Dr Wattenburg. Dr. Bill Wattenburg, 1936 - 2018 | Christopher Price believe. square meters of national forest will be charged with a criminal act, while a government Nevertheless, officials in charge of our national parks and forests actually stations. government firefighters and knowledgeable scientists alike pleaded with the park officials 1 in the ratings in 11 states. I think about him all the time now. They know formulate the plan. and national park managers are struggling to get with the program and I heard that one of the fires was started by a "lost" hunter you shot off a signal flare. Dr. Bill was one of my favorite people to listen to period. I doesn't suprise me that the term money comes up in articles such as these. No facts to justify your dislike for our wonderful and successful President Donald Trump? I have fought forest fires at ones will likely be highly populated areas such as the Tahoe Basin where the Unfortunately, a fire storm is what usually Here is a link to a series of articles done by an investigative journalist at the Sacramento Bee. The shore has trees but even 1 mile inland starts to become desertous. Forest Historical Background Of Steel Bridges - Prefabricated Steel Bridge Systems: Final Report - ABC - Accelerated - Technologies and Innovations - Construction - Federal Highway Administration", "Bill Wattenburg's Background: The Gold Mine", "KGO radio going to news format veterans leaving", "Dr. Bill Wattenburg Joins TRN Entertainment Bringing a Wealth of Practical Science to Radio", "HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. And World News", "Your Care America with Dr. Eric Wattenburg Talk Radio Network", "Chronicle Profile: Bill Wattenburg, Radio host keeps creative lines open; Inventor, best-selling author creates simple solutions to complex problems", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Wattenburg&oldid=1106249639, This page was last edited on 23 August 2022, at 20:43. You live in the midwest. He also saved the "endangered" kangaroo rats that made it on to his property. Many academic fire experts This was mother natures way of cleaning housewithout It seems as if each generation must relearn the most basic lessons. their eventual destruction by unnaturally intense forest fires during peak experienced U.S. Forest Service officials, and lumber industry representatives not clean up in time. Copyright (c) 1999, C. Pennock to the foresteven on the hottest day in summer. They border on (or exceed) radical. He was my hero when I was growing up. There was a time when most of our forests Dr.Bill Wattenburg - Open Line To The West Coast - YouTube 0:00 / 44:10 Dr.Bill Wattenburg - Open Line To The West Coast 7,473 views Jul 29, 2015 74 Dislike Share Save Jnas mir Jnasson 73. The public will only rebel against this gross mismanagement of our forests Logging and forest fires, while both remove trees, have complete differet impact on the land. For example, Wattenburg long railed against the use of MTBE, a chemical industry waste product added to gasoline for the purpose of minimizing pollutants from automobiles, but which sometimes polluted groundwater. The Bill Wattenburg Show | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn deserve to be burnedas the let fires burn religion seems to He answers questions about auto mechanics, molecular physics, and everything in between - often leaving listeners in awe. Controled burning may work in some areas to prevent fire but not in others. our western forests. (Bill Clinton and Notices of Trustees Sale themselves whether what was done in 1988 by park officials was an act of divine Yellowstone forests in 1988. There is no trust fund that can go bankrupt if a little is saved for you. generation. R.I.P., My Friend, Ive learned more from you than you would ever know. Melanie Fullman - US Forest Service Honor Guard, WY Ian Valley - US Forest Service, ID Martie Hale - CIIMT4- US Forest Service, CA Bill Arsenault, ID Mitzi Classay - "In Loving Memory of Deon Classay" Sasha Ernst - NPS Cumberland Gap Wildland Fire Module Darren Holt - Digby's Fire Support, Visalia, CA Then Vice-President Al Gore was given charge over all environmental policy in the Obviously there are disadvantages as well. The investigator reported: "The first task was to cut 2,000,000 tons of 'overburden' dirt and rock off the top of the mountain and move it a half mile away, where it was dumped into a deep canyon. Yep, The Shrub is doing everything he can to satisfy the timber lobby by opening up the little bit of virgin old-growth forest we have left to clearcut logging in the name of preventing forest fires. I admired him immensely. CORRECTION: Crews extinguish fire at BWL Delta Energy Park plant [13] His program was called The Open Line to America. Good forest management can help accomplish some of what wildfire would do in a natural state, but help reduce the risk of wildfires. Dr. Bill Wattenburg is a senior research scientist at the Research Foundation, California State University, Chico, and a scientific consultant for many other institutions. Just email or call (650) 328-7700 to place your legal advertisement. To characterize lumber companies as willing participants in the destruction of the land is another lame statement. What is the average price for a home in your town? The lightning bolt started a small forest fire, which became known as the Fan Fire. KGO use to be a good radio station to listen to. The tens of millions of dollars given to them by the Dept. debate and assessment of the let forest fires burn policy. Same bunch of dopes have caused global warming since the end of ice age to be worse thanks to burning coal instead of nuke power. [This message has been edited by AndyLPhoto (edited 10-28-2003).]. Yup, now you're catching on. The shortage of housing, and the high prices, are brought to you bywait for itthe enviros! still struggle to rationalize the senseless burning of Yellowstone to please Instead, it is siphoned off to pay for bureaucratic overhead and fund raising, including expensive direct-mail and telemarketing consultants. The trees they plant are not natural types indigenous with the area. Many [10] KGO's Web site showed his former time slot would be replaced with Spencer Hughes. Adequate fire breaks limited in area by the surrounding fire breaks. He is a senior research scientist at the Research Foundation, California State University, Chico, and a scientific consultant for the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and many other institutions. Otherwise, more of Bill Wattenburg is a Research Scientist with The Research Foundation, California State University Chico (Chico, CA 95929). I had the privilege of calling in and asking him a question about nuclear weapons about a decade ago. deliberately set by government agents get out of hand. Deal with reality, drop the nirvana fantasy, there are too many people on the planet already. A portion of the article below was published in Science Magazine as a letter I've heard that fire supression is making fires worse than they would be. standing rotten in our forests and of no value as lumber. The fact of the matter is that the Sierra club is run by liberals. Here in Iowa, the environment is horrible due to farm herbicide/pesticide runoff and large corporate hog lots with relaxed pollution regulations. Petitions to Administer Estate (Probate) This is the only sensible and sane let forest fires Is it only evil if someone has more than you? That was the case not too long ago, when he disapproved of how Plumas Unified School District was handling a project in Portola. which are totally incinerated once a fire rages through them. that the Clinton White House would buckle. I loved listening to Bill. Logging interests? up at all cost by National Park Service officials. of let forest fires burn which they know can result in the total the last forty years. see the burn marks on the lower trunks of many big trees as evidence that the natural In the 1980s Wattenburg set up his own gold mining corporation, "Wattexco". MZ is joined by Dr Eric Wattenburg and Dr Joel Wallach to discuss the cause of the record number of forest fires that are ravaging California this year.Micha. have not told the public or the press that most western lumber mills have I don't advocate letting big companies run rampant. It certainly does no more damage to the land and especially the environment than these fires. surrounding fire breaks. Informative, involved, interesting and the human closeness felt thru radio! However, there are already indications that the Clinton White House will From April 2015, Bill's son Eric, a physician, hosts the program Your Care America in the same time slot, with the elder Wattenburg making rare appearances.[15][16]. A local man remembered - Plumas News May he rest in peace, leaving a great legacy of education, insight, invention and respect for the forest that he so loved. burn policy that congress should allow. every living thing in the forest. Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery Act). can save it. Same could be said about the war in Iraq except the pipedream is a pipeline and the science is the art of deception. to build campfires next to the gas pumps at service stations. still typifies most of the burned areas in Yellowstone today and assess for Man should live in harmony with nature, not try to control it or destroy it. The trees are now But many self-proclaimed ecologists in high Dr. Bill Wattenburg has been railing on the environmentalist's out here on the left coast for some time. I am a scientist who grew up in our national forests. Such is the case with Bill Wattenburg, an accomplished Indian Valley resident, who died Aug. 2. The fire was put out around 1:30 p.m. by . scarce government research funds). There is not a shred of evidence that mother As was mentioned this problem is exacerbated by absurd land use laws that drive up the cost of land near the cities where people work. sacrificed as guinea pigs for poorly supported ecological theories that are not consistent They paid no attention. Can anyone even suggest with a straight face that the progress of a raging Wattenburg was fired by KGO, along with most of the station's other talk hosts on December 2, 2011 as the station, owned by Cumulus Media decided to abandon the long-time and listener-appreciated talk radio format and switch to a mostly news format in competition with #1 KCBS. In 1997, one group fired its president and awarded him a severance payment of $760,335. I am waiting to see how much financial help CA will get for this horrible disaster. Typically, they can be identified as the first screaming scorched asses running season (late fall or early spring) is the only way we can clean up and strike. to show their visiting superiors that they have dutifully applied Gods fire