Forest Service says Northeast Tennessee is almost ten inches behind in rainfall, and it's the dry conditions that's making this fire hard to quench. Campers said they noticed a little smoke and ash, but they're used to being around camp fires, so it didn't bother them. To watch video online please click here to download the latest version of the Flash plugin. It's not threatening campers who came out for the holiday weekend. Search TriCities.com Keyword Search Site. The fire spreading in...

A potential disaster was averted in Likely when a slash and burn pile took off into the surrounding forest on private land owned by Wesley Gainer. A Lockheed Electra air tanker contracted by BC Forestry was enlisted, dropping two full loads of retardant on the almost two hectares of burning forest while a bird dog plane circled continuously to monitor the progress of the fire. Anxious onlookers parked beside the Likely Road on the valley wall across from the Gainer property to get a...

FEATURE-Palm oil puts squeeze on Asia's endangered orangutan Sun 27 May 2007 7:05 PM ET By Gillian Murdoch PALANGKARAYA, Central Kalimantan, May 28 (Reuters) - Bound hand and foot, dishevelled orangutans caught raiding Borneo's oil palm crops silently await their fate as a small crowd of plantation workers gather to watch. FEATURE-Palm oil puts squeeze on Asia's endangered orangutan Sun 27 May 2007 7:05 PM ET By Gillian Murdoch PALANGKARAYA, Central Kalimantan, May 28 (Reuters) - Bound...

That's the message of this Web site, designed to alert people to the need to call the national underground utilities before doing so much as planting a tree. It may be hard to teach an old dog a new trick, but you'd best try to get Fido to use the phone before he heads out to bury a bone in the yard. This site gives you the scoop on how and when to call and exactly how long you'll need to wait for crews to assess your chances of hitting a power line. frees 42 Iraqi captives in raid Study:...

However, the deaths also were blamed on social and political pressures and decisions to put homes before the safety of firefighters, according to a report. The state agency spends 44 percent of its budget on wildfire suppression annually, he said, and much of that work means protecting homes where suburbs collide with wilderness. Firefighters attitudes also are an issue in protecting homes. Deaths challenge firefighting strategy. Esperanza fire accident report: http://www.fire.

To those critics, plantings and other carbon offsets are like the medieval practice of selling indulgences to wash away sins: It may feel good, but it doesn't solve much. Still others decry tree planters who continue to jet off to Cannes, drive their SUVs or generally fail to reduce their fuel-hungry lifestyle. People worried about global warming increasingly are trying to "offset" the carbon dioxide the leading greenhouse gas they spew into the atmosphere when they drive, fly or flick on...

To those critics, plantings and other carbon offsets are like the medieval practice of selling indulgences to wash away sins: It may feel good, but it doesn't solve much. Still others decry tree planters who continue to jet off to Cannes, drive their SUVs or generally fail to reduce their fuel-hungry lifestyle. Groups that offer tree offsets typically rely on Web calculators requiring users to type in how many miles they drive, how much electricity they use and how far they fly. For...

You d go in with hand tools and create a fire break where you d remove the fuel around the fire to contain it so it burns to the edge of where the fuel ends and it stops. He was involved in timber management and spent time as a hot shot, a ranger who fought big forest fires in the Western states. He always took us out camping in the woods, so I got interested in forests and remote natural areas, and I liked physical challenges. To pursue my forestry training, which focused on timber...

In structural building applications, timber frame construction is widely used because in many situations it is simply quicker to build with because it meets and often exceeds building regulations and standard requirements for thermal insulation, sound transference and air tightness and outperforms many of the so-called 'traditional' building materials. Blue Sky had taken the decision to experiment with timber frame in order to see if it could benefit from the system's perceived cost...