The U.S. Forest Service has announced a new wildfire management policy that provides for prioritizing which wildfires to suppress and which to let burn. The option to allow fires to burn has evolved, in part, because past forest management practices have resulted in overly dense forests that, when ignited by natural or human causes, produce fires so intense, they are extremely costly and hazardous to attempt to suppress.
Public funding is increasingly scarce to allocate toward
deployment of fire management resources, and prioritizing wildfire
suppression is a logical need as the size and intensity of wildfires has
increased.
The suppression costs are only a drop in the bucket, though.
From 2009 through 2012 in New Mexico alone, our wildfires
have cost the state a midpoint estimate of $1.5 billion, with the brunt
of this being carried by the state, county and local governments, and by
private individuals and businesses.
These costs are from rehabilitation, infrastructure losses,
structures burned and other direct and indirect costs not including the
suppression costs borne by state and federal governments.
With the forecast of increasing risk of wildfires in New
Mexico and shrinking state and federal public funds to apply toward
forest fire suppression and restoration, it is time to give the private
sector the incentive to thin out the New Mexico forests and utilize the
materials for public and entrepreneurial benefit.
Senate Bill 204 proposes an amendment to existing state
statues that would encourage private industry to construct energy
producing facilities that specifically use, in a responsible and
controlled manner, the volatile materials that have built up in New
Mexico’s forests.
The incentivization and implementation of the energy
producing facilities that use hazardous forest material as proposed by
SB 204 would provide the public multiple benefits.
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