DENVER-
Two Colorado congressmen want to know why a long-term plan for the country’s aerial wildfire-fighting program promised this spring likely won’t be finished for several more months—after the worst of the fire season is over.
Democrats Mark Udall and John Salazar, whose districts include insect-ravaged swaths of forest considered vulnerable to fire, sent two recent letters asking Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey where the plan is.
Last year, the congressmen asked Rey, who directs U.S. Forest Service policy, about the state of air tankers following fatal crashes in 2002 and 2005 and an independent investigation into the aging aerial fleet’s safety. They said Rey promised that a long-term plan would be completed this spring.
Udall and Salazar sent a letter last week asking when the plan would be released and a second letter Tuesday saying they were “very concerned” to hear it likely won’t be finished for months.
With the West’s ongoing drought and the bark-beetle epidemic leaving stands of dry, dead trees, “it is essential that we have the resources we need and that those resources are safe and effective,” the congressmen wrote. Fire season typically wanes in October or November.
Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh in Washington said last week that the study likely will continue through the end of the year. He said the report’s status won’t affect the agency’s firefighting ability this season.
Asked Thursday about the congressmen’s latest later, Walsh said: “We don’t comment to the media about letters to the undersecretary.”
Rey told The Associated Press in a May 18 interview that he doesn’t foresee any problems with preparedness for this year’s fire season. He said that while there are fewer fixed-wing air tankers under contract than there were before the crashes, there are more large helicopters with water tanks and smaller firefighting helicopters lined up.
“We’ll have assets (comparable) to what we had last year,” Rey said. “I think we probably won’t have quite as severe a year as we had last year.”
Rey said Forest Service guidelines for the planes’ readiness are tougher than Federal Aviation Administration guidelines for civilian aircraft.
Udall said he was glad to hear that the Forest Service has a plan for the summer, but wants a formal response to his letter.
“I do think they have a responsibility to those of us in Congress who wanted to work with them to let us know” about the plan, Udall said.
Nationally, the federal government has 16 large air tankers ready to go. There were 44 tankers before some planes were pulled from service and others were grounded for inspections after the crashes.
Wildfires have already erupted in California, Florida and Georgia, and the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, says on its Web site that 36,416 fires have burned a total of 1.3 million acres this year.
That’s below the 2.5 million acres for the same time last year but above the 10-year average.
Last year’s fire season was the worst on record, said Jennifer Smith, spokeswoman for the interagency center. She said 96,385 fires scorched nearly 10 million acres last year.
James Hull, co-chairman of a panel of experts that issued a report in 2002 on the aerial firefighting program, said he’s not concerned about the delayed plan.
“It’s a very complex matter. It’s going to be very expensive however you go about doing it,” said Hull, the Texas state forester.
But Hull said he is disappointed that the Forest Service is still looking for suitable military aircraft to convert to air tankers. Most of the planes are leased from private contractors who convert military aircraft to carry fire retardant.
In addition to the 16 air tankers, the federal government has dozens of large helicopters with water tanks that can also haul buckets, as well as smaller helicopters and about 30 single-engine planes, said Tom Harbour, national director of fire and aviation management for the Forest Service.
Harbour said the Forest Service was considering issuing more contracts this week and that “literally hundreds of helicopters” across the country could be leased quickly if needed.
