Forests

REDDING, Calif. (AP) — A woman has been arrested on suspicion of starting a Northern California wildfire that spread rapidly, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders Thursday in a rural community, authorities said.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — Growing armies of firefighters battled wildfires in the heart of California’s sequoia country on Wednesday.

A big increase in personnel put more than 1,400 firefighters on the lines of the KNP Complex fire in Sequoia National Park, fire information officer Ana Beatriz Cholo said.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — The ancient massive trees of Sequoia National Park’s famed Giant Forest were unscathed Tuesday even though a wildfire has been burning near them on the western side of California’s Sierra Nevada for nearly two weeks.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — Four famous giant sequoias were not harmed by a wildfire that reached the edge of Giant Forest in California’s Sequoia National Park, authorities said.

The Four Guardsmen, a group of trees that form a natural entryway on the road to the forest, were successfully protected from the KNP Complex fire by the removal of nearby vegetation and by wrapping fire-resistant material around the bases of the trees, the firefighting management team said in a statement Sunday.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — Flames on Sunday reached a grove of sequoia trees in California as firefighters battled to keep fire from driving further into another grove, where the base of the world’s largest tree has been wrapped in protective foil.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — Two lightning-sparked wildfires in California merged and made a run to the edge of a grove of ancient sequoias, momentarily driving away firefighters as they try to protect the world's largest tree by wrapping its base in protective foil.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Two journalists and an environmental activist have been beaten up by suspected illegal loggers in a forest in northeastern Romania while making a documentary about illicit deforestation, authorities said Friday.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — California wildfires have burned into at least four groves of gigantic ancient sequoias in national parks and forests, though cooler weather on Friday helped crews trying to keep the flames away from a famous cluster containing the world’s largest tree.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With flames advancing toward the signature grove of ancient massive trees in Sequoia National Park, firefighters on Thursday fought fire with fire.

Using firing operations to burn out flammable vegetation and other matter before the wildfire arrives in the Giant Forest is one of several ways firefighters can use their nemesis as a tool to stop, slow or redirect fires.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters wrapped the base of the world's largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning Thursday in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has put the brakes on a effort to thin hundreds of square miles of land in Arizona to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, drawing sharp rebukes from elected officials.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With flames advancing toward the signature grove of ancient massive trees in Sequoia National Park, firefighters on Thursday fought fire with fire.

Using firing operations to burn out flammable vegetation and other matter before the wildfire arrives in the Giant Forest is one of several ways firefighters can use their nemesis as a tool to stop, slow or redirect fires.

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Fire crews moved to ramp up the battle Wednesday against two expanding forest fires threatening Sequoia National Park’s giant sequoia trees and infrastructure.

The Colony and Paradise fires, ignited by lightning strikes last week, covered about 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) in California’s steep Sierra Nevada.

CUSTER CITY, S.D. (AP) — Looking down a hillside dotted with large stumps and nearly devoid of trees, a pair of retired U.S. Forest Service employees lamented logging policies they helped craft to deal with two harbingers of climate change -- pine beetles and wildfires.

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Sequoia National Park is shut down, its namesake gigantic trees potentially threatened by two forest fires burning in steep and dangerous terrain in California’s Sierra Nevada.

NECOCLI, Colombia (AP) — Every day, at least 500 migrants from around the world sail out of Necocli, a small town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, across the Gulf of Uraba to the village of Acandi, to start a week-long trek through the jungle that takes them into Panama — the next stop on the long road to the United States.

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has given preliminary approval to a plan for road-building, logging and other forest management measures in Montana's Swan Valley with the goal of reducing fire danger and enhancing habitat for several federally protected species, the agency said.

SANGEH, Indonesia (AP) — Deprived of their preferred food source — the bananas, peanuts and other goodies brought in by tourists now kept away by the coronavirus — hungry monkeys on the resort island of Bali have taken to raiding villagers’ homes in their search for something tasty.

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Parts of the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness will reopen Saturday as firefighters make progress fighting wildfires in northeastern Minnesota.

The Superior National Forest is lifting the full closure of the Boundary Waters and the Crooked Lake area near the fires in Canada.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal officials closed a portion of trails at a national forest in Northern California where a family and their dog mysteriously died last month, citing pending toxicology reports on nearby water.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Caldor Fire roared over a ridge of the Sierra Nevada as the winds returned this week and bore down on the southern end of Lake Tahoe. Perhaps more than other wildfires in the Western U.S., this one resonates the world over.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Officials leading the fight against wildfires in northeastern Minnesota warned Monday about a new threat: bears attracted by generous donations of food and other supplies.

“Donations have far out-stripped our need and our ability to store what we have received,” Superior National Forest officials posted in a social media update.

ISABELLA, Minn. (AP) — Officials in the Superior National Forest said Thursday that the ongoing drought has created “tinderbox conditions” in northeastern Minnesota as firefighters continue to battle an uncontained wildfire, while rain that's expected to fall in coming days is unlikely to provide much help to crews who are growing tired.

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — U.S. Forest Service officials on Wednesday extended the closure of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after Minnesota's largest wildfire doubled in size.

The Greenwood Lake fire burning in the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota grew to about 30 square miles (77 square kilometers) Monday, and four new smaller fires ignited within the BWCA.

ISABELLA, Minn. (AP) — Authorities ordered more evacuations Monday near a quickly spreading wildfire that's one of several burning in northeastern Minnesota.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office said the new evacuations were happening near Grouse Lake and Mitewan Lake because of the growing Greenwood Lake fire, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of the town of Isabella in the Superior National Forest.

AGDINES, Greece (AP) — For generations, residents in the north of the Greek island of Evia have made their living from the dense pine forests surrounding their villages. Tapping the ubiquitous Aleppo pines for their resin, the viscous, sticky substance the trees use to protect themselves from insects and disease, provided a key source of income for hundreds of families.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Crews were digging in and burning out fire lines amid another round of high winds Saturday contributed to the fury to a Northern California wildfire.

“We have a firefight ahead of us and the wind today is going to make it very challenging," said Keith Wade, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — At nearly every community meeting on firefighting efforts in the U.S. West, residents want to know why crews don’t simply put out the flames to save their homes and the valuable forests surrounding them.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters have contained a major wildfire that ravaged a pine forest and burned homes near the Greek capital, the minister for citizens' protection said Friday night, adding that a prosecutor for organized crime cases was involved in the investigation of this summer's major fires in Greece.

LE LUC, France (AP) — Firefighters have tamed but not fully controlled a huge wildfire blazing through the backcountry of the French Riviera, the top state official in the region said Friday.

The prefect of the Var region, Evence Richard, told reporters that the fire was considered stabilized, meaning not spreading.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Millions of acres of national forest in Northern California are being closed because of dangerous fire conditions that already have sent a score of blazes raging through the area and destroyed hundreds of homes.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Dry and windy weather dogged firefighters’ efforts to contain destructive fires that are devouring the bone-dry forests of drought-stricken Northern California on Thursday.

THEA, Greece (AP) — A major wildfire that has ravaged a pine forest for four days, burnt homes and led to the evacuation of villages northwest of Athens is on the wane, but not yet under control, Greece's minister in charge of public order said Thursday.

ISABELLA, Minn. (AP) — A wildfire in the Superior National Forest of northeastern Minnesota that crews have been fighting since the weekend has grown to 6 1/4 square miles (16 square kilometers), but U.S.

LE LUC, France (AP) — Just when fire officials thought a huge wildfire near the French Riviera might be slowing down, a new pocket of flames shot up. And just as a water-dumping helicopter finished dousing one hot spot, another ignited.

POLLOCK PINES, Calif. (AP) — Record-setting blazes raging across Northern California are wiping out forests central to plans to reduce carbon emissions and testing projects designed to protect communities, the state’s top fire official said Wednesday, hours before a fast-moving new blaze erupted.