Wildfire season has begun with nearly half a million acres burned so far this year, mostly in the South. And so it is time for the armchair generals to pontificate on problems with U.S. fire policy and how those problems can be fixed.
When it comes to the Forest Service, few have as much experience at armchair generaling as me, so it is timely that the Cato Institute should publish my paper on wildfire, The Perfect Firestorm. The paper shows that Forest Service fire expenditures are growing out of control, having increased by 450 percent in the last 15 years.
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I argue that most of this spending is wasted. Contrary to popular belief, most national forests in the West are not overloaded with hazardous fuels. Recent bad fires were bad because of droughts, not fuels. But the Forest Service has deftly manipulated Congress into giving it huge amounts of money for a fire problem that doesn’t really exist.
One problem, other than the sheer waste of money, is that fire is displacing other funds in the Forest Service budget. Several national forests in California get more than 60 percent of their budgets out of fire. This suggests that recreation, watershed, and other resources are being neglected. This has alarmed people within the Forest Service, who worry that fire, which ought to be an adjunct mission of the agency, has become the main mission.
The real source of the problem is that Congress hasn’t figured out a way to fund fire other than to give the Forest Service a virtual blank check: letting the agency spend however much it wants and then reimbursing the Forest Service at the end of each year. My paper suggests several alternatives, including an insurance system, turning all fire issues over to the states, and funding the national forests solely out of their receipts instead of out of tax dollars.
Contrary to popular belief, most national forests in the West are not overloaded with hazardous fuels. Recent bad fires were bad because of droughts, not fuels.
I’ve already shown this assertion to be false. Drought AND fuel loads from past fire suppression and poor management make big fires possible today.
There’s almost 1M ac of standing dead in CO alone. And the USFS is scrambling with their budget again and likely will need a supplement this year if this fire season lives up to early billing.
DS
Data for fuel loadings are currently being compiled at every agency, where DS got his numbers and can say that fuel loadings are not increasing to the point of overloading is just one way of interpreting the statistical analysis to fit ones views. I have been in this business for 20 years and can see the change in forest structure and function. Drought is a contributor yet the amount of live and dead fuels are on the increase and the forest structure is vastly departed from its historic conditions. Inflation and safety procedures increase fire costs as well as public scrutiny that takes away suppression options and organizations that strive to keep the neccessary tools out of the hands of the men and women dedicating their very lives to fight fire are the ones to suffer and perhaps die in the line of duty.
Every indication of modeling and data complilation show increases in fuel loadings and fire behavior predictive services and actual observation compared to past years show the increasing danger posed by todays fire conditions. I know what I say will be disregarded as propoganda and dismissed as a minority point of view, but I live this job and the armchair quaterbacks will continue to tell yhis organization to do what they think is right! Thats what this country is about! I suggest you suit up and join me on a large wildland fire and fight it with out the resources you need then judge the system. The issue of cost is insignificant for the mission of saving lives and property as well as valuable resources.
I argue that most of this spending is wasted. Contrary to popular belief, most national forests in the West are not overloaded with hazardous fuels. Recent bad fires were bad because of droughts, not fuels. But the Forest Service has deftly manipulated Congress into giving it huge amounts of money for a fire problem that doesn’t really exist.
This is wrong. Naturally, the facts are more subtle.
Shocking, I’m sure, to find out Randal either doesn’t understand or misrepresents the issue.
DS