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AUGUST 30, 2000

Efforts, or lack of them, of fighting the first major fire in the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado are being criticized by local landowners.

The landowners say the government was too slow to react to the fire, which led to the destruction of almost 20,000 park acres and more than 3,000 acres of private, tribal, and federal lands in July.

No significant damage to the park's historic Pueblo villages occured in the fire but it exposed some unknown sites. A second fire damaged some sites, which are not open to the public.

Get the Story:
Mesa Verde fire efforts ripped (The Denver Post 8/30)

Relevant Links:
The National Interagency Fire Center - www.nifc.gov
Mesa Verde National Park - www.nps.gov/meve/

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Fire threatens park again (8/7)
Fire threatens sacred artifacts (8/8)
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Hundreds fight reservation fire (8/10)
Reservation fires grow (8/11)
Fire affects power, reservation (8/11)
Fire crews to give up (8/11)