WASHINGTON — As drought threatens to create another record wildfire year, federal and state officials told Congress Wednesday they are using new authority it gave them last year to clear extra fuels to help prevent small fires from becoming catastrophic.

"For 2004, the Forest Service anticipates treating hazardous fuels on 1.6 million acres," and 60 percent of that will be in forests adjacent to urban areas, Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture, told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs.

President Bush complained after a record wildfire season in 2002 that red tape made it too difficult to clear extra fuels on many public lands. He also blamed appeals by environmental groups for slowing the approval process. In response, Congress last year passed a bill to streamline the process.

Besides the stepped-up work by the Forest Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is awarding 30 fuels reduction contracts this year and is on track for another 80 next year, testified Assistant Interior Secretary P. Lynn Scarlet.

Montana Gov. Judy Martz, representing the Western Governors' Association, said combined efforts by federal, state and other partners since 2003 have managed to reduce fuels on 5.5 million acres, including 138,374 in Utah.

Among committee members who hailed stepped-up action was Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, who noted, "Last year, for the third time in 10 years, I became personally acquainted with the dangers of fires as the mountain behind my home . . . burned for a week, causing continual uncertainty to my family."

Cannon, who has a home in Mapleton, said stepped-up efforts are needed because "according to the National Interagency Fire Center's Wildland Fire Outlook, weather and vegetation patterns suggest that the West will experience above-normal fire potential once again this year."

Worse, he said, "conditions in the Southwest suggest that the region's 2004 fire season may be as severe as the (record) 2002 fire season."

Committee members urged continued support for the steps the administration has taken to help fight wildfires.

"This problem was not created overnight, and will not be solved overnight," said subcommittee Chairman Doug Ose, R-Calif., whose state is already battling serious wildfires.

"It is still important that we expeditiously begin the long process of removing hazardous fuels and returning our national lands to their former glory."

In 2000 and 2002, the nation suffered its two worst wildfire seasons in 50 years. Fires in those years burned more than 15 million acres of land and cost the federal government $3 billion to suppress.

On top of that, California had its worst fire season in 2003, when 13 wildfires killed 24 people, destroyed 3,600 homes, charred 739,000 acres and cost $250 million to contain, Ose said.

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