Alesia Inspected:

FOREST SERVICE CHIEF SAYS AREA POT FARMERS DAUNTING

U.S. Forest Service chief Gail Kimbell, the second top federal
official to visit Shasta County this summer, got an aerial view
Monday afternoon of the region's timber country and marijuana removal efforts.

It was Kimbell's first trip to Northern California since taking over
the Forest Service this year. Kimbell, the first woman to hold the
job, succeeded Dale Bosworth.

On Monday, Kimbell lamented about the sheer determination of pot
growers and the danger they present for firefighters, Forest Service
employees, and the public.

"It's not all about marijuana. It's about the resource damage and
public safety," Kimbell said during an afternoon press conference at
the Redding Forest Service office.

The ingenuity of people who can cultivate anything on a steep slope
is daunting, she added.

Kimbell's trip comes a month after John P. Walters, President Bush's
drug czar, came to Redding for an update on the "Operation Alesia"
marijuana-removal effort.

The campaign destroyed 52 gardens that had been identified and an
additional eight discovered after the assault began. All told,
283,397 plants were pulled from gardens in the Shasta County woods.
Nearly 65 percent of the pot gardens found were on Forest Service land.

Some 400 law enforcement officers were used in the effort, which
wrapped up in late July.

Still basking in the success of "Operation Alesia," forest service
special agent Ron Pugh said Monday that three more law enforcement
officers will join the marijuana fight in Shasta County next year.
They're among 50 additional cops the state will bring in 2008 to help
remove marijuana gardens, said Pugh, who heads up the Forest
Service's Pacific Southwest Region.

California is getting $5.5 million in federal funds to help pay for
the beefed-up effort, Pugh said.

Monday's aerial tour was arranged by north state Congressman Wally
Herger, R-Chico. But flight delays in Atlanta and Los Angeles caused
him to miss the event, said Fran Peace, Herger's district director.

The Forest Service chief's visit came three days after her agency
released a study on the Angora Fire, which burned more than 250
structures near Lake Tahoe in June. The agency said areas near
subdivisions where defensible space and fuel-reduction plans were
implemented provided havens, which prevented more homes from burning.

Many homes burned in the Angora Fire were sparked by fuels generated
from other burning homes -- and not from trees and other wildland
fuel, the report said.

Kimbell, who was on the road last week and has not seen the Angora
Fire report, said history shows that managed tree stands suffer much
lower mortality rates than do forests that are left alone.

"It allows firefighters to be more effective," Kimbell said of managed forests.