And the feds are rarely more eager to launch a fund-raiding party than when a huge forest fire is raging somewhere, and they have no money to pay for putting it out.
In an age when mega-fires are rapidly destroying the nation’s Western forests, the problem has become chronic: Each year, enormous fires rapidly consume the resources allocated to the U.S. Forest Service to fight fires, so the agency turns elsewhere, seeking emergency funds.
Far too often, that “elsewhere” has been money allocated for federal fire-prevention efforts, including forest thinning and planned burns. Since 2000, the Forest Service has run out of money allocated for fighting fires eight times, forcing it to launch raids on its own remediation budgets.
The raids help create a tragic, self-defeating circle of destruction. Without funds for forest thinning, the forests are left more exposed and vulnerable to the next year’s mega-fires, which become ever-more frequent and intense as forests become ever-more choked with trees and underbrush.
Legislation in Congress promises to break the cycle. Now, if only the snow-packed lawmakers in Washington, D.C., can see past their moisture-laden environment and recognize just how critical these funds are to the drought-stricken forests of the West.
The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act would free up as much as $412 million annually for forest-thinning projects by creating a special fund for fighting mega-fires.
With a designated firefighting funding source, the need to raid other pots of money abates.
Congress has made some progress on forest remediation. Notably, an amendment to the farm bill, sponsored by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., will streamline the often complex process of contracting with private companies to conduct forest-thinning operations on federal land.
No comments:
Post a Comment