Wildfire month

Don't look now, but we have entered the mean season. It is that time of the year when temperatures soar, rain is scarce and wildfires break out like, well, like wildfires.

Recent large fires in Gilchrist County, around Lake Okeechobee and elsewhere in Florida are early warnings that this mean season could be especially hazardous. As Division of Forestry spokeswoman Ludie Bond told The Sun last week, "May is going to be a very decisive month for wildfires. It's when you see our largest wildfires in the state."

And yet, as The Sun reported, only one county in Florida, Hernando, has as of last week imposed a ban on outdoor burning. Just the other day a local reader wrote to The Sun to complain about neighbors who regularly burn trash outdoors, seemingly oblivious to the danger involved.

"There is no routine broadcast warning us all not to burn," she complained. "no obvious efforts are being made to break offenders of such bad habits."

Obviously, it is incumbent on all of us to be more mindful of the danger of fire during this mean season. Even a cigarette butt carelessly flicked from an open car window is capable of touching off a conflagration.

Oddly enough, however, the most effective way to fight fire continues to be with fire. Regular and carefully controlled burns on large tracts of public and private land not only serve to minimize the danger of wildfire outbreaks, but they help keep natural uplands and habitats healthy and more productive.

A major impediment to controlled burns is the fragmentation of rural landscapes, as new subdivisions and shopping strips spring up far from urban centers. One benefit of the Florida Forever land preservation program is that it helps keep large areas of wilderness intact, and thus more easily subjected to controlled burns and other fire-suppressing land management techniques.

Hopefully, the rains of spring will soon arrive and the mean season will begin to temper. But for now, caution and vigilance on the part of government and individuals alike should be the order of the day.