A big win for the West
Congress finally gives land managers the flexibility to protect communities from wildfire
The U.S. land management agencies charged with protecting Western communities from wildfire have been stuck in a destructive feedback loop:
- Fighting massive wildfires drains land agency budgets.
- With no money left to fight fires, agency leaders are forced to take money away from critical programs (often called “fire borrowing”).
- Important projects like watershed restoration, hazardous fuels reduction, trail improvements, and forest health are delayed or cancelled altogether.
- The following year, again, massive wildfires drain land agency budgets. Rinse and repeat.
After years of working to address the problem of fire borrowing, which has kneecapped the Forest Service and the Interior Department for years, Congress finally passed a so-called “fire fix” through the Omnibus spending bill. The fix, signed by President Trump last week, has long been sought by Western members of Congress from both sides of the aisle (and had previously been supported by the Obama administration).
This is, undoubtedly, a big and important victory for Western communities. It’s no secret that wildfire has become an increasing problem in the West — a worry that’s top-of-mind for many in the region staring down the barrel of another nasty summer of wildfire. A combination of a warming climate, longer fire seasons, the century-long practice of suppressing all fires, and more people living near fire-prone areas has increased the cost and complexity of fighting fire.
Finally, the Forest Service and the Interior Department will have the flexibility to pay for wildfire suppression without having to take precious resources from other critical programs — a phenomenon that’s happened over a dozen times since 2002. As importantly, it will free up the Forest Service to reverse a disturbing trend that’s forced the agency to spend an ever-growing portion of its budget fighting wildfire. In 1995, fighting wildfire consumed 16 percent of the Forest Service’s budget. The percentage has ballooned in only two decades, now consuming over half of the Forest Service’s budget.
In these hyper-partisan times, it can be frustrating to watch how difficult it is to get even the most common-sense policies passed. A 2015 analysis by the Center for Western Priorities found that the congressional proposal to fix fire borrowing had stronger bipartisan support than any other natural resources bill before Congress. Statements from both sides of the aisle showed how that support finally paid off in the omnibus bill.
Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO):
“This bipartisan fix transforms and modernizes the Forest Service’s capacity to restore forest health and mitigate and fight wildfires. It allows the Forest Service to complete the entirety of its mission, without being undermined by the pressures of fire.”
“Our provision will ensure the Forest Service has the necessary funding for cleanup and prevention efforts that will help reduce the amount of catastrophic wildfires the Forest Service has to fight.”
“Common sense has finally prevailed when it comes to how the Forest Service pays to fight record-breaking forest fires that devastate homes and communities in Oregon and the West.”
“This long-overdue provision will enable agencies to fight forest fires like the disasters they truly are and stop the debilitating practice of fire borrowing,”
The “fire fix” offers a ray of hope that our leaders can still solve real problems by passing bills on a bipartisan basis.
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