A few years ago that ecolog-ist, Ron Wakimoto, testified before Congress that crown fires, the blazes that turn whole forests into towers of fire, should be deliberately set in wilderness areas as a way of reforming the woods into collections of healthier trees of varying ages. Stephens said that before deciding which method or combination of methods to use, it's important for forest managers to decide what they're trying to achieve and how they will maintain those conditions once they get there. The other methods carry risks, too, as the fires in Los Alamos and Lewiston illus-trate. But mechanical clearing doesn't come close to duplicat-ing the benefits of fire on soils and fungi, and for repairing seedbeds and knocking down the weak trees that are prone to bark beetle infestations, Stephens said. But fire becomes more ex-pensive as it moves closer to civilization.
Professionals call that the urban-interface zone.
Cheaper, that is, if the fire doesn't escape. Escapes are rare Escaped burns, although highly visible, are rare, Ste-phens said. Dunton insists that fires won't escape if those who plan them write the proper pre-scriptions and then follow them. He was part of the team that investigated the July 1999 Lowden Fire near Lewiston. It simply should not have been ignited, he said.