Forest pinching pennies because of fire costs
By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
August 21, 2008
Bridger-Teton National Forest is making cutbacks and more could come because the cost of fighting forest fires nationwide is expected to balloon over budget.
The anticipated cost of fighting fires through September will require “dramatic” cuts in other Forest Service programs, U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell said Monday. Kimbell expressed similar concerns about the cost of suppressing forest fires at a news conference on Teton Pass in late July.
The lack of adequate fire suppression funds nationwide has already begun to affect local programs, according to Bridger-Teton officials.
Bridger-Teton spokeswoman Mary Cernicek said that locally, programs related to wildlife, trails, range, roads and engineering could take a hit.
“As the Bridger-Teton, what we’re doing to help is we’ve reduced our travel, meetings, conferences, those sorts of things,” she said.
Bridger-Teton personnel are now making only “mission-critical purchases,” Cernicek said. “You had money in your budget, but in reality you don’t because that money needs to go to firefighting efforts across the nation.”
While Congress appropriated $1.2 billion for fire suppression costs this year, officials estimate there will be $1.6 billion in actual expenditures by the end of the fire season. That leaves a $400 million shortfall that would come from Forest Service programs.
“We are taking dramatic measures,” Kimbell said in an e-mail to Forest Service employees Monday. “Every program everywhere is affected. We are withdrawing funds from regions, stations, area and the national office to be able to pay for fire suppression.
“I know this comes with serious consequences for this year, for next year and for relationships everywhere. I wish we didn’t have to make this move. But wishing won’t change the weather and the fact that we have to continue fighting fire.”
Jared White, spokesman for The Wilderness Society, said the shortfall comes as no surprise.
“They just don’t allocate enough money to pay for the fire-suppression effort,” he said.
White said Congress used a 10-year average to calculate this year’s fire-suppression budget.
“The average cost isn’t keeping pace with the next big fire season,” he said.
The problem, he said, is that money for forest programs can be used to fight fires.
“The most clear and present long-term solution is creating a fire wall between money that goes towards suppression costs and the money that fuels the rest of the budget,” he said.
White said Congress could have addressed the shortfall earlier this year with the Federal Land Assistance Management and Enhancement Act, a bill sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) that would have made fire-suppression costs independent of other Forest Service expenditures.
The bill has been modified to eliminate that fire wall, White said.
“[The original bill] was gutted,” he said. “The current form of the bill does not solve the problem.”
