Governor, U.S. Senators blame bureaucracy for Murphy blaze

admin//July 30, 2007//

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Response to the 600,000-acre-plus Murphy Complex fire near the Idaho-Nevada border was good but could have been better, Idaho’s U.S. Senate delegation and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said at a news conference in Boise today after touring the fire area.

“We need to have much faster reaction from the federal government,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said at the event at Boise Airport.

Federal bureaucratic delays prolonged the fire and enabled it to grow, officials said.

“The person on the ground should make the decision,” Otter said.

Electrical power was lost, then restored, at the Duck Valley reservation.

“There was no manual for the tribal government to get through what I quickly learned was a difficult maze to get through,” said Shoshone and Paiute Tribal Chairman Kyle Prior, a participant in the news conference.

Sen. Larry Craig,R-Idaho, said federal policies have limited grazing and contributed to the buildup of fire fuels.

As for getting through the current fire season, potential solutions include arguing for more streamlined government decision making, and granting ranchers a waiver to graze animals on some current set-aside ground, officials said.

“The key is flexibility of response right now,” Crapo said.

Otter said the number of Idaho cattle lost to the fire is not yet available, and that surviving cattle will be affected. One rancher told him that he expects calf weights to come in at 40 percent of normal this season.