Walsh: Olympia’s Lip Service Not Enough To Prevent Wildfires

Frustration is mounting in Olympia over efforts to prevent large scale wildfires before they start.  House Bill 1784, looks to address the wildfire epidemic, by expanding the scope of DNR’s forest health treatment policy, and establish annual wildfire fuel breaks across public lands.

Aberdeen Republican Jim Walsh said HB 1784 is common sense legislation and should move through quickly.  But he noted that Olympia has developed a reputation of offering lip service and stalling out on results.

“Setting fire breaks, thinning forests, the simple stuff of fire prevention, we get a bunch of bureaucratic backlash, here and excuses, and to me a bill like this, really, frankly, should shame some of our state bureaucracies into the things they should be doing anyway to minimize fire risk.”

Walsh said more environmentalists should be some of the first to sign on for forest health legislation.

“We talk to people who want to worry about our carbon footprint, well this is a major, major thing we can do, to manage our carbon footprint is to prevent wildfires.”

As the legislation continues to move through committee, and Walsh said he’s hopeful HB 1784 will get a floor vote during the current session.

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