An article published in this month's Outside magazine calls for the elimination of all smokejumper bases. From the magazine...

"Douglas Gantenbein, a Seattle based correspondent for The Economist spent 18 months studying America's wildland firefighting system for his book,"A Season of Fire", to be published this September by Tarcher Putnam."

In this Article he explores the buildup of fuels and the problem that is faced by the USFS and the BLM. He shows his lack of knowledge of smokejumpers with the following statement as a justification for the closing of all the bases. Quote from Page 124 "...these days jumpers often float down within sight of an interstate highway."

He goes on to argue that the government can save $20,000,000 by shutting down the smokejumper operations. Check out the article and write some rebuttals!

Mark Klinger is a former BLM Smokejumper who jumped in Fairbanks Alaska from 1979 to 1986, and transferred to Boise when the BLM opened the base there. He worked out of Boise until 1990. He made 150 fire jumps and has a total of 261 jumps as a smokejumper.