fire borrowing

Ask those that know the forest, and they'll tell you there's been a lot of deferred maintenance and scheduled maintenance that just does not get done.  And that is really starting to build up.  Forest Service Associate Chief Lenise Lago recently told lawmakers, “Our capital improvement budget has not kept up with needed maintenance."   And, ...

Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden said the Oregon Ag industry will receive needed help through the disaster package passed last week.  The two Democrats said part of the $19.1 billion bipartisan disaster includes relief for Oregon agriculture affected by severe wildfires and storms, such as winegrowers that saw their crop severely damaged by wildfire smoke in 2018.  ...

The practice of fire borrowing continues to plague the U.S. Forest Service.  A fix to the process where funds are taken from one account and used to fight active wildfires, was created last spring through the fiscal year 2018 omnibus spending package.  Ye...

This wildfire season has already been so severe, that Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the Forest Service has already had to move money from forest maintenance and education into firefighting efforts.  It’s a tactic known as fire borrowing.  During a...

President Trump signed the $1.3 trillion omnibus budget bill on Friday.  Which included a new funding structure for fighting wildfires.  Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue addressed the idea of fighting wildfires earlier this month.   “Where we don’t have to borrow money to spend on fire suppression, where we could be using it on forest management to prevent forest fires.”   Also included in...

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden continues to promote a bipartisan bill he says will end the dangerous practice of fire borrowing.  That’s when the federal government borrows from one budget to pay of wildfire fighting efforts during the season.  Wyden sa...