This week, the USDA released a state-by-state list of fire prevention, forest restoration, and other forest health projects that were postponed or cancelled due to a lack of funding specifically because those funds were used up due to fire-fighting costs. While the report does not specifically mention the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act (Act) (S. 1875 (Wyden, D-OR) & H.R. 3992 (Simpson, R-ID)), it is clear that the Act would be a big step in preventing future situations where these types of projects are defunded due to over-expenditure of the fire suppression budget. 

The Act, supported by RCRC and a broad coalition of other local government, environmental, and community groups, would permanently separate the fire suppression Budget from other forest budgeted activities. In addition to the Act, President Obama’s Budget proposal includes a similar approach to funding wildfire suppression costs. The President’s proposal would create an emergency fund, similar not only to emergency funds already available for other natural disasters at the federal level, but also similar to the way fire suppression costs are handled in California with the E-Fund. This special set aside, would fund the costs of catastrophic and particularly costly to fight wildfires, thereby protecting the funding for critical fire prevention and forest health programs.

In his statement releasing the report, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted the unequal treatment of fire disasters under current federal law, "Until firefighting is treated like other natural disasters that can draw on emergency funding, firefighting expenditures will continue to disrupt forest restoration and management, research, and other activities that help manage our forests and reduce future catastrophic wildfire."

Just twenty years ago, the USFS was spending approximately 15 percent of its total budget on firefighting; today they spend 40 percent or more on it. In the past two decades, the agency has been forced to shift away from more and more fire prevention and forest health activities to focus more and more of their limited resources on fire suppression. Some of the cancelled forest health projects have been re-funded in later years, but ultimately, this system creates a large backlog of needed projects that could prevent future fire disaster.

In California, between 2012 and 2013, several cancelled projects were highlighted by the report including needed repair of an air tanker base, watershed restoration projects, trail work for better public access, mine site mitigation, clean up of a timber blow down area, surveys for possible timber sales, hazardous fuels work and stewardship contracts for such work, and restoration work on burned areas, among others.

The state-by-state report can be accessed here.

For additional information, please contact RCRC Legislative Advocate Cyndi Hillery at (916) 447-4806 orchillery@rcrcnet.org.