Taking on wildfire

Forest Service Chief Vickie Christianson told the House Appropriations Subcommittee recently that between two to three million acres of national forest land are treated for wildfire prevention annually. She adds, even with strategic planning of treatment in selected fire sheds, modeling reveals that in order to treat an additional 20 million acres to create forest resiliency… We would have to add another 2.65 million acres a year for the next 10 years to execute this strategy. She also notes additional benefits beyond reducing wildfire activity. It would create, we estimate, between three hundred thousand to five hundred and seventy five thousand jobs and of course, protect significant communities and small businesses and enhance local economies. Technological and strategic innovation at wildfire prevention and suppression efforts will play a greater role in curbing fire activity in our nation's forests and grasslands. U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christianson offered examples at a recent House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, including, We have made good progress in standing up our unmanned aircraft systems program. We flew in partnership with Department of Interior, over 1000 U.A.S. missions for fire and intelligence post fire recovery and other natural resource missions. Satellite fire detection services and capabilities are currently in place through a USDA Defense Department joint agreement. We've launched a very important, modernized national interagency dispatch system, which process over five hundred and seventy five thousand resource orders in 2020 alone.