Below are excerpts from an article in the August 28 edition of the Washington Post, written by Peter Goldmark, the Washington state commissioner of public lands.
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Congress should do more to protect the country from wildfires
…By failing to provide an emergency funding source for federal firefighting efforts, Congress has forced the U.S. Forest Service to pay for its firefighting efforts by cannibalizing programs that promote healthy forests and wildfire prevention. A recent report from the agency reveals that its firefighting workforce has more than doubled since 1998 while the number of its land managers has shrunk by 35 percent.
Despite the scale of disasters such as the Carlton Complex, Congress still pays for federal wildland firefighting as though it were lawn mowing or picnic-table painting or any other routine administrative task. Several bipartisan legislative proposals would instead allow the Forest Service to tap into the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster fund to fight wildfires, as the federal government does when responding to other natural disasters. Faced with yet another opportunity to fix this situation before adjourning for a five-week recess, Congress failed to act.
According to Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group, twice as many acres burn and three times as many structures are destroyed during each wildlife season as in 1990, and the season now lasts two months longer.
Congress should provide emergency funding to fight wildfires while greatly increasing the budget for stewardship of America’s shamefully neglected national forests. We must fix this broken model before more people, communities and wildlife suffer needless harm.
Defensible space is easy, if the requisite political will and insurer resolve are present. Go to the Gulf of Mexico beachfront, and homes now have to be built awful high on stilts to be able to withstand storm surge. Done right, you are still left with smoke issues in the case of defensible space, but that’s life in the west. Don’t complain about high gusty winds or smoke from fires. And don’t build unwisely and look for someone else to bail you out when the pine nestled into the corner of your house lights your house on fire.
As for forestry and logging, plantation forestry in particular can increase the risk of hot fires. A big stand of all same-age-class trees with nothing else there is a lot of fuel in the right conditions. Our forests don’t “need” logging any more than the Midwest has an ecological need for corn farming. If we choose to do it, recognize it as a form of agriculture, just like that corn farmer in Iowa. Our forests do need periodic fire, though.
Jon – I fully agree that putting more of the burden on homeowners in the WUI is an important first step. However, your following statements seem to equate “forestry” and “logging” as being the same thing, and I must disagree that the answer lies in Congress mandating more forestry/logging: whenever Congress starts mucking around in on-the-ground natural resources, there is too much potential for a one-size-fits-all answer, and the land suffers. Better that we should identify the “desired end condition” that supports all of the land’s capabilities, and then manage towards that goal. Some places, critters that need fire may be a higher priority than ex-urbanites that want a woodsy life style; other places, watersheds may be the highest value; and yes, some places, community economic stability thru timber production may be the best use.
But let’s generate those priorities close to the ground, rather than in the often-vacant Halls of Congress. I personally trust the wildlife biologists and Foresters in the West to make good decisions instead of an Oklahoma Doctor, a South Carolina lawyer and Kentucky optomatrist.
More importantly, home owners should consider better places to build homes, create good defensible space, and use wiser building materials. Blaming the government when we put our houses in the middle of a pretty stand of timber is silly. If you’re frustrated with congress, encourage them to do more forestry. Logging, rx burns, and defensible space funding is more of what our forests need. Remember, the only safe tree is a stump.
I agree totally. Forests burn as a natural process.
“Congress should do something…” Aww that’s so cute, the author still thinks that Congress is in the business of serving the people.
LOL. Funding to fight the fires that need to be fought is good. Waiting for Congress to do it is a bit of a pipe dream IMNSHO.
For us computer- shorthand Luddites, what does “IMNSHO” stand for?
In my not so humble opinion? Maybe? Or maybe he sneezed.
IMNSHO = In My Not-So-Humble Opinion
GI – as in “got it”
MG – as in “Muchas Gracias”
AITYFBTOGHLUTSOTNS-H:and I thank you for bringing this old grey haired Luddite up to speed on the new short-hand.
Congress should do more to protect the country period!