As wildfires rage and budgets dwindle, more funds sought for firefighting

[marmar]

from the LA Times:



The record wildfire season scorching the West is prompting renewed calls for Congress to change how it funds firefighting, a push that comes as the head of the Forest Service said the agency would soon exceed its firefighting budget for the year -- again.

In a letter to regional foresters and other employees, Tom Tidwell, the chief of the Forest Service, said the agency would have to borrow money from other programs the agency runs, a practice that has become increasingly common as wildfires grow in size and intensity and increasingly threaten populated areas. This year, for the first time, the agency is spending more than half its budget to fight wildfires.

“Once again we have to shut down many parts of our mission to fulfill our wildfire suppression responsibilities within the funds available to the agency,” Tidwell wrote this week.

He noted that the agency received $1.01 billion for firefighting this fiscal year but that its projections for costs ranged between $869 million and $1.53 billion. In his letter Tuesday, Tidwell said the agency had only $174 million remaining and “we anticipate the current extreme fire activity to continue through the end of the fiscal year,” which ends Sept. 30. ................(more)

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sej-wildfires-budgets-20150828-post.html

[Hydra]

1. The cost of Climate Change

And we're unwilling to pay it.