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Several of Missoula’s top federal forest service fire science experts blocked from attending major fire conference

November 1, 2017 /

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Several of Missoula’s top federal fire scientists have been denied permission to attend the International Fire Congress later this month, leading conference organizers to suspect censorship of climate-related research.

"Anyone who has anything related to climate-change research — right away was rejected," said Timothy Ingalsbee of the Association for Fire Ecology, a nonprofit group putting on the gathering.

"Most of the folks from the Missoula fire lab, the vanguard entity in the Forest Service — all but a handful got cut. We were expecting about 44 scientists from the Rocky Mountain Research Station, and only six or seven have been permitted to attend," Ingalsbee said. "Those folks are doing critical analysis on fire suppression effectiveness, which is a new area of research."

ROB CHANEY [email protected]

http://missoulian.com/news/local/forest-service-fire-experts-blocked-from-attending-major-fire-conference/article_127599f5-a92f-5411-a76d-1f7cb95461c9.html#tracking-source=home-featured