Western Senators Call for Updated Wildfire Funding

Senators from six western State are calling for an update to how wildfire fighting is funded.  In the wake of historic wildfires in across the West, Oregon’s Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkely as well as Washington’s Maria Cantwell are three of nine senators calling for an update to how the Federal Government funds fire fighting costs.

The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act of 2017 would end what the senators call the destructive cycle of borrowing from fire prevention accounts to put out fires and stop the erosion of the Forest Service’s budget by reforming the way the federal government funds wildfires.

“Oregonians and westerners are battling another record-breaking fire year. The threat of catastrophic wildfires is growing, yet the federal government continues to conduct ‘business as usual’ when it comes to fighting fires in Oregon and the West,” Wyden said. “More communities are put in danger and fire prevention work gets left undone because of a backwards fire budgeting system. It’s past time for Congress to make it a top priority to end fire borrowing, stop the erosion of the Forest Service becoming the ‘Fire Service’ and start treating wildfires like the natural disasters they are.”

“The way we fund wildfire suppression today is counterproductive and crazy,” said Merkley. “As this fire season has proven all too vividly, robbing from forest health and fire prevention programs to pay for suppression only creates a vicious cycle of bigger and bigger fires. It’s time to fix this problem once and for all by funding fighting the biggest wildfires the way we do other natural disasters.”

Wednesday’s announcement comes on the heels of Wyden and Merkley securing federal funding to train member of the National Gard to fight wildfires.

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