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Megafires: The New Normal In The Southwest

3:17 am

Thu August 23, 2012

How The Smokey Bear Effect Led To Raging Wildfires

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Adams (left) talks with Swetnam in their laboratory, nestled under the football stadium.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Rex Adams, a senior research specialist at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, steps away from a band saw that he uses to slice tree ring samples.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Swetnam leaves his laboratory for the evening. Fires in the Southwest have been getting bigger and bigger over the past two decades. The Wallow fire in Arizona, Swetnam says, was "a tornado of fire." "It burned more than 40,000 acres in the first eight hours," he says.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

By cross-dating different tree-ring samples from a given area, researchers can get a clearer picture of how a forest burns.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Swetnam stands in the catacombs of storage boxes that house thousands of tree-ring samples. His laboratory is buried under the bleachers of the University of Arizona football stadium.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

A perfect tree-ring slice is a window in time, a slice of a forest's history.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

A tree's rings are marked on graph paper. Experts use this technique, called skeleton plotting, to help them cross-date tree-ring samples. This sample evinces no fire scars in the latest years of the tree's life.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

University of Arizona professor Tom Swetnam examines a tree sample at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in Tucson, Ariz. Swetnam's research focuses on understanding how forest fires are influenced by climate change.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Tree-ring samples are collected from every corner of the world and meticulously studied and stored in Swetnam's lab. The thick, dark rings on these samples are fire scars. Last year, more than 74,000 wildfires burned over 8.7 million acres in the U.S.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Swetnam holds a tree ring sample; it shows no forest fire scars from the past 100 years. The Forest Service's aggressive efforts to fight fires over the past century have had unintended consequences.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

A Smokey the Bear fire prevention sign sits in Valles Caldera along Highway 4, which was one of the front lines in fighting the Las Conchas Fire in 2011.

By Christopher Joyce

Originally published on Fri August 24, 2012 7:50 pm

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First of a five-part series

The history of fire in the American Southwest is buried in a catacomb of rooms under the bleachers of the football stadium at the University of Arizona.

Here rules professor Thomas Swetnam, tree ring expert. You want to read a tree ring? You go to Tom. He's a big, burly guy with a beard and a true love for trees.

Around the Nation

7:39 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Restaurant Request: Please Don't Pass The Salt

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Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Around the Nation

7:35 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Robber Thwarted By Pot-Wielding Kitchen Worker

By editor

Police say a man had a knife, and confronted the woman behind the counter when he walked into Pop's Barbecue in New Iberia, La. Rather than just give up the money, she grabbed a pot that was on a counter, and whacked him again and again. The robber ran away.

Politics

6:26 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Sen. McConnell Reaches Out To Tea Party Supporters

By Philip Bailey, Kentucky Public Radio

Originally published on Thu August 23, 2012 1:55 pm

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Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In Kentucky yesterday, there was another sign of Tea Party clout. Mitch McConnell - minority leader in the U.S. Senate, and Kentucky's most powerful politician - turned up at his first-ever Tea Party rally. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: This was not McConnell's first Tea Party rally. He participated in a Tea Party event in 2010.] This year, Tea Party candidates have scored upsets in Republican primaries in Missouri, Texas and Indiana. That's where longtime Senator Richard Lugar lost.

Latin America

5:26 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Haiti's Damaged Presidential Palace To Be Razed

By editor

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 5:27 am

Among the hundreds of buildings that crumbled in Haiti's 2010 earthquake was the National Palace. The Haitian government announced Tuesday that demolition of the National Palace will begin soon. A non-profit aid group founded by actor Sean Penn will pay the bill, though it's not clear what will replace the palace.

Election 2012

5:23 am

Wed August 22, 2012

GOP Platform Committee Adopts Abortion Position

By Greg Allen

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:19 am

Democrats have seized on rape comments made by Rep. Todd Akin. The issue of women's health and abortion for rape victims has put Republicans on the defensive. Tuesday, as party members met in Tampa to put together their platform, and the language includes no exceptions for rape or incest.

Election 2012

5:23 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Obama Tells Student Voters That He Was One Of Them

By Scott Horsley

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:23 am

President Obama has been campaigning among college students. In Nevada and Ohio Tuesday, he told them his policies are better than his opponents for keeping higher education affordable.

Law

4:51 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Jury To Decide Apple's Patent Case Against Samsung

By editor

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 4:10 pm

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What your next smart phone or tablet computer might look like is in the hands of a California jury. In one of the biggest patent infringement cases ever, Apple is suing Samsung — charging that in creating its products, Samsung ripped off iPhone and iPad technology. Samsung countered with its own allegations.

This case is complex, the legal issues are daunting, and the jury's decision has to be unanimous.

"What's at stake here is the future of smartphones and the tablet market," says intellectual property expert Christopher V. Carani.

Middle East

3:06 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Syrian Conflict Stokes Unease In Lebanon

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Credit AFP/Getty Images

Lebanese masked gunmen from the al-Mokdad clan gather for a news conference in Beirut's southern suburbs on Aug. 15. The Mokdads, a large Lebanese Shiite Muslim clan, said they kidnapped at least 20 Syrians to try to secure the release of a family member abducted by Syrian rebels near Damascus this week.

Credit Anwar Amro / AFP/Getty Images

One of 20 Syrians kidnapped by the Mokdad family is seen in footage broadcast on Lebanese TV in Beirut, on Aug. 15.

By Anthony Kuhn

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 9:43 am

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In Lebanon, a wave of kidnappings and an alleged plot to destabilize the country with bombings — both related to the uprising in Syria — are shaking Lebanon's precarious sectarian balance.

That's been apparent on al-Mokdad Street in south Beirut, which has been tense in recent days. The Mokdads are a large Shiite clan who control the street that is named for them. Young men with pistols in their pockets cruise the street on motor scooters, acting as the clan's lookouts.

Around the Nation

3:05 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Trying To Tame The (Real) Deadliest Fishing Jobs

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Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Crew members of a scallop boat float in their survival suits during a drill in Point Judith, R.I.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Aboard the Debbie Ann, training instructor Fred Mattera helps a fisherman zip up a survival suit as part of an abandon-ship exercise in Point Judith, R.I.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Mattera coaches a fisherman as he plunges into the water during a vessel disaster simulation.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

In a formation called "the worm," crewmen link up to be able to paddle against strong waves and winds to a lifeboat.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Crewmen of the Debbie Ann hear about the mistakes they made during a man-overboard drill that could have cost a life during a real-life incident.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Debbie Ann crew member Mike Gallagher once discovered a friend killed after becoming entangled with machinery on deck.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Crew members from the Paul + Michelle unload 60-pound bags of Atlantic scallops after a fishing trip.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Bags of Atlantic scallops stacked in the boat's hold. The eight-day voyage yielded a catch worth more than $250,000.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

A fisherman on the Paul + Michelle cleans the scalloper's dredges in New Bedford, Mass. Scalloping is an especially dangerous fishery because the heavy overhead equipment can knock people overboard into frigid waters.

Credit Jesse Costa / WBUR

Captain Joe Neves of the scalloper Paul + Michelle once lost a 21-year-old crew member to a man-overboard accident. "Me and him were having strawberry shortcake the night before," he says.

Credit Curt Nickish / WBUR

Boat captain Bill Amaru pilots his trawler, the Joanne-A III, to its mooring in Chatham Harbor on Cape Cod after a cod fishing trip.

By editor

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 4:09 pm

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On the fishing-boat piers of New England, nearly everyone knows a fisherman who was lost at sea.

Boat captain Joe Neves remembers when a crew member got knocked overboard. "We heard him screaming 'Help me!' " Neves says, grimacing. "But you know, on the water at night, your head is like a little coconut." They didn't find him.

Mike Gallagher discovered a friend who was entangled in still-running hydraulics. "I knew right away he was dead," he says.

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