From Deseret News archives:
Firefighting consumes U.S. Forest Service's budget
2 bills would create fund for emergency wildfire coverage
House Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, each have bills to create a federal fund specifically for fighting emergency wildfires, separate from money normally set aside for firefighting activities.
"Our Forest Service is turning into the fire service, to the detriment of the rest of its mission," Rahall said at a House Resource Committee hearing on the bills Thursday. "For the past several years, we have witnessed tragic fire seasons that have put American lives and our treasured public lands in harm's way. Fire seasons are getting long and more intense due to climate change, drought and other factors."
The increase in major wildfires has created a "rob Peter to pay Paul" situation for the Forest Service and the Interior Department by borrowing other funds including fire prevention from other agencies to cover the higher costs, Rahall said, with other witnesses and lawmakers using the same analogy.
Rahall said that in 2007 the Forest Service spent $741 million more and the Interior Department spent $249 million more than was budgeted for firefighting.
Goodlatte's bill, the Emergency Wildland Fire Response Act of 2008, also creates an emergency fund and requires the Interior Department to develop a national map of areas at the most risk for wildfires. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is a co-sponsor of Goodlatte's bill.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who testified on behalf of the Western Governors Association, said she supported the FLAME act because range and wildland fires are "a growing phenomenon in the western United States."
"Arizona's experiences are not unique," she said. "Last year, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Texas and other states across the West saw fires burn hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlands. These fires all have one thing in common an unhealthy landscape due to poor or insufficient prevention efforts and the lack of adequate manpower and resources to fight fires. These megafires are not going to go away."
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