Western Governors Ask for Congress to Address Wild Fire Funding

With continued drought and low snow pack across the West, the Western Governors Association has sent a letter to Congress calling for increased federal funding to made be available for preventing and suppressing wildfires, which have grown increasingly intense and destructive in western states.
In Washington for example, last summer’s fire season included the largest wildfire in state history and burned through six times as many acres as the annual average. It cost the state more than $100 million to extinguish the fires. State costs over the last three years total close to $180 million. Field Reporter Greg Martin shares more
Martin: “Due to current policy constraints, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior have each year been forced to engage in so-called “fire borrowing,” wherein their fire suppression activities eat up agency funding intended for other purposes, including forest health management and wildfire prevention work in federal forests. With an increase in the intensity of western wildfire seasons, USFS has seen its firefighting spending grow from 13 percent of the agency’s annual budget to more than 40 percent over the last 25 years. Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in both chambers of Congress that would instead allow these agencies to access emergency funding in responding to major fires, similar to the way the Federal Emergency Management Agency responds to other natural disasters.”