Like going off to war, when New York foresters and rangers scramble to fight Western wildfires, they seldom have any idea where they will wind up.
“I never expected to be fighting a fire in Nebraska,” said James Canevari, a Department of Environmental Conservation forester who recently returned from a two-and-a-half-week tour of duty along with nine compatriots.
But the changing climatic conditions — greater episodes of heat, drought and wind — that are being blamed for the great conflagrations on the West Coast are sparking fires across the High Plains and Rockies as well.
New York’s foresters and rangers are always on standby, ready to mobilize should the call come from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management or other federal agency in need of help.