Report: Wildfires' costs hurt conservation (Forest Service)

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drm
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Report: Wildfires' costs hurt conservation (Forest Service)

Post by drm » August 21st, 2014, 8:15 am

A report on how the cost of fighting fires has decreased Forest Service spending on other things, including conservation programs and maintenance, which I assume to include trails (though it is probably dominated by buildings and roads).
The biggest hit has occurred with the maintenance of thousands of recreational sites and buildings managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Vilsack said. Spending on maintenance has decreased by two-thirds.[since 2001]
http://www.columbian.com/news/2014/aug/ ... servation/

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Splintercat
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Re: Report: Wildfires' costs hurt conservation (Forest Servi

Post by Splintercat » October 8th, 2014, 1:04 pm

Very true. Rep. DeFazio (and others in the PNW congressional delegation) have been making the case for not only stabilized fire fighting funds, but also treating the unusually large incidents as we do any other natural disaster, and funding them with disaster relief funds. Hard to get sensible legislation through this Congress, of course, something that DeFazio notes in his floor speech on the proposal:

http://votesmart.org/public-statement/9 ... DWnpUuG71o

Tom

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retired jerry
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Re: Report: Wildfires' costs hurt conservation (Forest Servi

Post by retired jerry » October 8th, 2014, 1:16 pm

"Disaster Funding" should be for unusual events, like an earthquake or a hurricane.

Seems like big forest fires are becoming the norm so they should have a much bigger amount budgeted each year.

Well, after the Republicans take back the senate and get bigger majority in house then they'll get back to sensible legislating :twisted:

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Re: Report: Wildfires' costs hurt conservation (Forest Servi

Post by mcds » October 9th, 2014, 10:55 am

I wonder how costs compare, between fighting a single large fire and fighting two fires of equivalent area, in two seasons. I suspect the rule of thumb is that fighting two smaller fires cost more than fighting a large one.

The 2014-08-20 report is 13 pages:
This report details the long-term shift of agency resources into the fire program and away from other mission critical programs.
http://www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/file ... 082014.pdf

The official executive summary is here:

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usd ... 8/0184.xml

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