Only you — and the government — can prevent forest fires at Mount Rushmore

On July 3, the National Park Service permitted fireworks at the mountain carving for the president and 4,800 guests. It’s not difficult to understand the fire risk posed by the event. Fireworks go up, and embers come down. Mount Rushmore is surrounded by the Black Hills National Forest. When embers fall on pine needles and other dry vegetation, wildfires can start. A wildfire near Mount Rushmore could endanger thousands of people at the memorial and 2 miles down the road in the town of Keystone.

Trump uses Mount Rushmore speech to allege ‘mortal threat’ from communism

Nobody summed it up better than the late Bill Gabbert, a former Park Service fire management officer who once said that shooting fireworks in the summer over the forest surrounding Mount Rushmore was “an insane concept.”

Gabbert said that during his involvement with past fireworks shows, 60 to 80 firefighters roamed the rocky terrain around the mountain, toting 5-gallon bags of water on their backs to douse fires. Fireworks displays at Mount Rushmore from 1998 to 2009 caused 21 wildfire ignitions, according to the Park Service’s own 2020 environmental assessment. Firefighters quickly suppressed those fires, but each one that flared up tempted fate.

The wildfire risk is one of the reasons the Park Service stopped allowing fireworks at Mount Rushmore after 2009 — until Trump’s pal Kristi Noem, then the governor of South Dakota, convinced him to approve them again in 2020. She used Trump’s appearance at the event to boost South Dakota tourism and her own national political profile.

Trump spoke publicly that year about his conversations with Park Service officials regarding the fire risk.

“I said, ‘What can burn? It’s stone,’” Trump recalled.

On the basis of that flippant or ignorant analysis, the Park Service obediently set aside its concerns from prior years. Sanity was restored during the Joe Biden administration, but the return of Trump to the presidency brought a return of fireworks to Mount Rushmore this year.

Before and after this year’s event, something incongruous happened: Local, state and federal officials warned and scolded the public about the fire-sparking potential of various activities in the drought-stricken Black Hills, including the use of fireworks.

On May 29, after a string of Black Hills wildfires, the sheriff’s office in Pennington County (which includes Mount Rushmore) said it would enforce a “zero tolerance” policy toward unpermitted open burning and other types of illegal fires.

On June 22, Pennington County officials reminded residents of the state ban against selling and discharging fireworks in the Black Hills Fire Protection District. The district encompasses the entire portion of the Black Hills that lies within South Dakota, excluding cities, and its restrictions are intended “to protect timber on areas subject to unusual fire dangers,” according to state law. Violations are punishable by 30 days in jail and a $500 fine, but there’s an exception for fireworks authorized by the government.

On July 1, two days before the Mount Rushmore event, children accidentally started a grass fire in Rapid City — 20 miles from the national memorial — with fireworks.

“Independence Day should be a time for celebration, not tragedy,” said Rapid City Fire Chief Jason Culberson in response to that incident, adding that he wanted everyone to enjoy the holiday safely by “making smart decisions that reduce the risk of injury or fire.”

This week, after a run of 100-degree temperatures with little rain, the U.S. Forest Service announced a higher level of fire restrictions in the Black Hills National Forest, prohibiting activities such as smoking outdoors, welding or driving offroad. “Fire danger is increasing, and these restrictions are being implemented to protect public and firefighter safety amid current and anticipated elevated wildfire risk,” the Forest Service said.

That’s the government agency that gave us Smokey Bear and his famous admonition to the public: “Only you can prevent forest fires.”

If Smokey wants the public to behave, maybe he should turn that slogan back around on the government. Because a government torches its own credibility on wildfire safety when it lights a barrage of fireworks over a forest.