Wildfire Impacts

Wildfire Impacts

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Recently on Capitol Hill a frank statement from the U.S. Forest Service second in command Christopher French. We do not have enough resources or capacity to address the needs in front of us right now. French told that to a Senate subcommittee that on the fire suppression side, Speaker2: We are losing a number of our skilled wildfire specialists to other agencies, Speaker1: Which seem to offer better pay and benefits. French was asked if the federal vaccination mandate would accelerate loss of firefighters. Speaker2: Don't know yet. We're currently assessing those numbers. Speaker1: Meanwhile, French said that for years now, money designated for forest planning and management has been siphoned off to fight the wildfires. And the result of Speaker2: That we've seen about a 40 percent decline in our natural resource professionals across the agency. We just can't pay for those positions anymore. That includes land management Speaker1: Planning, which he says partially explains why the Forest Service is behind schedule and updating many forest use plans across the country. Speaker2: The scale that we're seeing is nothing I've seen before. I mean, the post fire affects my recent tour of some of the fires in California is just it's just mile and mile of just moonscape. The post-fire recovery work that we have is tremendous. And so it's a growing issue that there is as much an effect to these landscapes and communities post fire as there is and preventing fire. And then the final thing is probably just funding, you know, because we're losing bridges, we're losing cover, we're watching public watersheds that are drying up, providing water to communities. It's a critical need.
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