9-19 NWR Fighting Forest fires

Last week, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved a bill aimed at helping the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) deal with its increasingly expensive fire-fighting efforts and to improve forest management activities. The Senate bill was approved on a party-line 11-9 vote with Democrats objecting. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said she was pleased that the bill begins to address the problem of fire-borrowing, by which the USFS is routinely forced to transfer funds from key projects like forest restoration and timber sales to help pay for firefighting. But she said a "comprehensive solution must also tackle the dramatic reduction in the Forest Service's resources for non-fire activities." The American Farm Bureau Federation applauded the Agriculture Committee's action. Idaho Farm Bureau spokesperson, Jake Putnam, told me this: "Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said his Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act is similar to a stand-alone measure that passed the House in July 2015. Both bills seek to address the rising cost of wildfire suppression."

Elsewhere, drugs and Washington state Our intertwined as a former heroin addict in Snohomish County has an answer to getting the community to care about the drug epidemic and the King County Heroin Crisis Task Force is recommending at least two safe injection sites for drug users: