Costs don't justify closing Minden air base

In recent weeks, Appeal readers have read stories in which forecasters say it could be a nasty wildfire season in Nevada.

So Friday's story on the potential closure of the Bureau of Land Management's Minden-Tahoe Airport's air tanker base is, to put it mildly, a shocker. Under that proposal, the tankers would move north of Reno to Stead Airport and the Minden base would no longer be available starting in 2007.

And if that happens, it would take longer to respond to fires on the Sierra Front around Lake Tahoe, which could allow blazes to get out of control and could cost property, if not lives. Any firefighter can tell you how vital even a few seconds can be.

The problem is money, of course, but not enough to warrant the potential risk. In question is about $98,000 that it would take to staff the airport.

It may sound like a lot, but remember that millions of dollars will be spent on just the rehabilitation efforts from the Waterfall fire.

Residents of the Sierra Front can be happy about two things: That the above-normal precipitation this spring has delayed the fire season here, and that even if the Minden base were taken off-line, it wouldn't happen until next year.

After that, it's anyone's guess.

So, even though the BLM's official stance is that they're a federal agency and will do what they need to tighten their belts and work the situation out with their partners in other state and federal agencies, we like the idea presented by Kevin Johnson, Minden Air Attack base manager for the BLM.

"Talk to your congressmen. That's the way we'll get things done."