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Must do better to reduce wildfire |
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September 9, 2016 |
By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador
 Every
year, Idahoans and others in the West suffer
through wildfires that damage public health,
destroy valuable timber, wreck watersheds and
kill wildlife.
The Pioneer Fire in the Boise National Forest is
among the nation’s worst this year, burning
182,000 acres and costing taxpayers $82 million
so far. The fire started July 18 and
firefighters don’t expect to have it contained
until mid-October.
Last year we saw a record 10.1 million acres
burn nationwide and the Forest Service spent
more than half its budget on firefighting -- up
from 15 percent 20 years ago.
The Forest Service classifies 30 percent of its
land at high risk for catastrophic fire, about
the size of New York and Pennsylvania combined.
Unfortunately, just 1.5 percent of the forests
are treated each year to remove the fuels that
sustain huge fires.
We can and must to better.
I am supporting three bills to prevent
catastrophic fires, improve forest health and
reform the way we pay for firefighting.
Last year, the House passed Rep. Bruce
Westerman’s Resilient Federal Forests Act to cut
fire risk and restore burned-over lands.
Critically, the bill speeds the salvage of
timber before it spoils after catastrophic
events by streamlining environmental reviews.
The bill provides for reforestation and swifter
approval of projects reducing hazardous fuels,
including removal of trees sickened by insects
and disease. It also expedites projects
protecting watersheds and wildlife.
I am the author of another bill, the
Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act, which was
approved by the House Natural Resources
Committee in July. My bill will permit up to 2
percent of the 193 million acres in the National
Forest System to be managed at the state and
local level. These lands would remain in federal
ownership.
The bill was sparked by my conversations with
county commissioners in Idaho, who want the
chance to prove that the people living amidst
the forests can do a better job than those in
Washington, D.C.
A third bill authored by my Idaho colleagues
Rep. Mike Simpson and Sen. Mike Crapo has
bipartisan support. The Wildfire Disaster
Funding Act treats catastrophic fires like other
natural disasters, rather than require the
Forest Service to borrow from other accounts to
pay firefighting costs in busy fire years. That
will help the Forest Service fulfill its
management responsibilities to make our forests
more resilient and healthy.
Of course, we can’t stop all wildfires. But our
forests are vital for our economy, recreation,
clean water, wildlife and much more. We must
take reasonable steps to protect the natural
heritage that makes the West so special and keep
Idaho the greatest place to live in America. |
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