By John Driscoll
The Eureka Times-Standard

Two wildfires on the borders of the Blue Creek watershed off the Klamath River are being drawn together as part of a firefighting strategy that American Indian tribes say threaten sacred high country sites.

Fire managers are looking to tie together the north and south ends of the 9,400-acre Blue 2 and the 62,000-acre Siskiyou Complex blazes, and burn a thick line along the joined fires' new edge to keep the fire in the mostly roadless area. That would prevent the blaze from making a run to the north or south into areas where it could eventually approach timber and residential properties.

But representatives of the Yurok and Karuk tribes have been raising concerns that aggressive firefighting techniques like back burns and aerial ignition — in which ping pong balls filled with fuel are dropped from helicopters — could cause a severe burn through land considered holy. Places like Little Medicine Mountain, Doctor Rock and Chimney Rock are in the area and are safeguarded as part of the Six Rivers National Forest management plan, the tribes point out. Extreme fire damage in the Blue Creek watershed could also harm the important Klamath River tributary's salmon fishery.

"We're not opposed to fire," said Karuk Vice Chairman Leaf Hillman. "We know that fire belongs in the system and we're very interested in having fire in the area."

Fire could, and should, be allowed to burn naturally through the area, he said, not moved quickly together at the risk of creating an intense fire in the Blue Creek area.

The area is the same place that the U.S. Forest Service proposed building a highly controversial road from Gasquet to Orleans to facilitate logging in the 1960s. The Karuk, Tolowa and Yurok tribes sued and won injunctions, stopping the so-called G-O Road, but in 1988 the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the injunction. However, in the early 1990s, the Six Rivers National Recreation Area was designated, prohibiting motorized travel in the area, effectively stopping the construction.

The incident commander for the Blue 2 Fire, Lynn Wilcock, said his fire managers work with the tribes every day and are doing everything they can to ease their concerns. He said that fire lines are being built on high ridges, and fire is then used to blacken either side of the line, allowing for a gentle, more controllable burn.

"There are always different opinions on the best strategy to fight a fire," Wilcock said.

Wilcock said little fire retardant is being used, and that crews are using drip torches to light back fires, although some aerial ignition is being used as well. He said the idea is to essentially make a ring around the two fires, but not to burn the entire area inside that ring, or the entire Blue Creek drainage.

Yurok tribal member Chris Peters, also president of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, said that moving the fire into the area risks a major burn that could wipe out the forest in the sacred areas. He said the tribe remains adamantly opposed to encouraging the fire to move toward Blue Creek.

"It has the potential of burning up the whole watershed," Peters said.

Peters also said that Six Rivers National Forest management is encouraging the strategy to bring the two fires together, despite provisions in its forest management plan and a memorandum of understanding that establishes the consultation process between the tribes and the forest service.

Six Rivers spokeswoman Julie Ranieri said the goal is to keep the fires from burning outside the wilderness, and insisted that Kelley is working with the tribes to protect sensitive sites. Ranieri said that the current strategy has produced a low-intensity burn, using favorable weather conditions.

"We're not seeing high-intensity events out there," Ranieri said.

Copyright 2008 Times-Standard All Rights Reserved