The Western Governors’ Association , to increase federal wildfire budgets so agencies can stop using fire prevention funds for fire suppression.
The association said the U.S. Forest Service is again on pace to utilize prevention funds for suppression — known as “fire borrowing” — in a season where Oregon, California and Washington have seen millions of acres of forestland burn.
“We end up robbing from the land managers,” said Kevin Klein, Director of the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “We end up stealing from those [prevention] programs to fight the fire. Treating wildfires like we do with our other programs makes sense to me.”
Fire borrowing has who agree that more federal funds are needed to battle wildland blazes. However federal funding initiatives have mostly ended in partisan gridlock.
“Doing hazard reduction just makes good sense,” Klein said. “If we can get ahead of the curve and mitigate the risks we can cut down on the suppression costs.”
In the long run, Klein said, ending fire borrowing will save money, adding that prevention could help keep wildfires small and from spreading across federal, state and local lands.
“In the past decade, wildfires have increased in size and intensity and the fire season now extends 60-80 days longer than historic averages,” said the association, calling its position “long-standing.” “Ineffective management, droughts and insect infestations also have left Western forest far more susceptible to catastrophic fires.”
Despite the risk, federal wildfire budgets have remained stagnant, the association said, “reinforcing this damaging wildfire cycle.”
While , the state has seen its four most destructive wildfires in the last five years, including the 2013 Black Forest Fire that burned more than 14,000 acres, consuming 488 homes and killing two. , according to CoreLogic, a California-based real estate and financial information provider.
“It means the same for us as for all Western states,” said Paul Cooke, Director of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control. “The more we pull out of the Forest Service budget for suppression, the less we have for prevention.”
