2007年VOA标准英语-Wildfires - Fact of Life in American West

By Shelley Schlender
Colorado
21 August 2007
 

The natural beauty of the American West is prompting more people to build homes in wildland areas.  Wildfires are also natural in those areas, and as climate change increases temperatures and drought, blazes are increasing, too.  And that increases the importance of educating homeowners about the hazards of wildfires.  From Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports.

Eric Phillips

When Eric Philips drives along a mountain lane, he is not looking at the scenery.  As the coordinator¹ of Boulder² County's wildfire mitigation effort, Philips keeps an eye on thousands of mountain homes.  "On a wildland fire, it moves so fast and there are so many houses potentially at risk, there's some houses that are not going to make it through the fire."

While many mountain dwellers³ believe that a wildfire will never hit them, Philips urges all of them to be prepared. "We're not in a position where we can really discourage people from building in the mountains.  They have a legal right to the building lots that they have.  What we do is to encourage and require them to have buildings that are built well."

Colorado wildfires

Philips points out one particular mountain home too close to a hillside of Douglas fir.  He wants the homeowners to work with their neighbors to see whether trimming the trees is an option.

Another problem shows up when a crane being trucked in for the home's remodeling squeezes down the country lane. "Do you see how this crane is having difficulty getting in here?  This is about the same size as a fire truck and you can imagine a fire truck trying to back in here.  Very difficult."

Building officials are requiring the remodeling team to use extremely fire resistant⁴ materials, such as cement board siding, plus metal clad doors and windows. 

David Theobald

These precautions are more critical than ever, according to David Theobald, a geographer⁵ at Colorado State University. His computer models show that people are building in fire-prone areas at a blistering⁶ pace. "Nationwide, we have expanded by about 50 percent since the 1970s. That area expands out to about 450,000 square kilometers.  That's 14 percent larger than the state of California."

Almost 90 percent of forest fire fighting efforts in the United States go toward protecting homes, Theobald says, and it is mostly done with public money.

Which means less public funding for mountain watersheds⁷ or habitat protection. Theobald wants more public dialogue about permitting people to build in fire-prone areas, and about how to pay for protecting them.  He says these are issues whenever people live in beautiful, but hazardous⁸, locations.

"Katrina happens, and we say, 'Oh my gosh it's a terrible thing, it is, it's a terrible thing.'  But we react to it and we go, and we rebuild that area.  Should we do it?  I don't know."

Carrie Radde owns a mountain home. She says that she and her family work hard to reduce the fire hazard. "We've cut down a lot of the trees right around our house.  We've tried to put gravel⁹ around the edges of the house to have that be defensible.  We mow¹⁰ down the weeds, you know, the small bushes that could easily catch on fire."

Wildfire official Eric Philips says that if more mountain dwellers took steps like these their homes would have a better chance. "If you parked a fire engine here and were able to fight the fire here, this is one of those houses where you might decide to make the stand."

To reduce the expense and danger of taking that stand, fire experts like Dave Theobald hope that lawmakers will pay attention to the growing number of houses being built in fire-prone areas, so that they create clearer policies for managing the costs.

1 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

2 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

3 dwellers   

n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes. 城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They have transformed themselves into permanent city dwellers. 他们已成为永久的城市居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

5 geographer   

n.地理学者

参考例句：

• His grandfather is a geographer.他的祖父是一位地理学家。
• Li Siguang is a famous geographer.李四光是一位著名的地理学家。

6 blistering   

adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡

参考例句：

• The runners set off at a blistering pace. 赛跑运动员如脱缰野马般起跑了。
• This failure is known as preferential wetting and is responsible for blistering. 这种故障称为优先吸湿，是产生气泡的原因。 来自辞典例句

7 watersheds   

n.分水岭( watershed的名词复数 )；分水线；转折点；流域

参考例句：

• Hyetographs are important in estimating stormflow hydrographs from upstream watersheds. 降雨历线资料为上游集水区推估洪水流量历线的重要依据。 来自互联网
• Sediments check dam in small watersheds in loess hilly gully area come from three proportion, i. 黄土丘陵沟壑区治沟骨干工程泥沙淤积来源于坡面侵蚀、沟道侵蚀和库区岸坡坍塌。 来自互联网

8 hazardous   

adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的

参考例句：

• These conditions are very hazardous for shipping.这些情况对航海非常不利。
• Everybody said that it was a hazardous investment.大家都说那是一次危险的投资。

9 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

10 mow   

v.割（草、麦等），扫射，皱眉；n.草堆，谷物堆

参考例句：

• He hired a man to mow the lawn.他雇人割草。
• We shall have to mow down the tall grass in the big field.我们得把大田里的高草割掉。