Obama to propose changes to wildfire funding

[alp227]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's upcoming budget will include a proposal to change the way the federal government pays to fight wildfires, a White House official said Saturday.

The proposal is part of the White House's effort to ramp up its focus on what officials say are the growing impacts of climate change. The president will discuss the proposal Monday during a meeting with Western governors from states impacted by wildfires and drought.

Obama wants the Interior and Agriculture Departments, the two agencies tasked with fighting wildfires, to be able to draw funds from a special disaster account when the cost of tackling fires exceeds their annual budget. That's the same approach the federal government currently takes when responding to hurricanes and tornadoes.

The official said the new approach was aimed at providing more certainty for agencies fighting fires.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/obama-propose-changes-wildfire-funding

[sheshe2]

1. Kick!

[jtuck004]

2. How about a special fund for people whose food stamps run out before the end of the month? That's

kinda like a a wildfire to them, isn't it?

Make it more certain they could put out that hungry feeling in their belly.

[Cha]

3. Thanks Obama for thinking of our First Repsonder Fire

Fighters!

[SunSeeker]

4. California fire officials need to take similar measures.

The feds generally only fight fires on federal lands. In California, California state and local fire agencies are responsible for fighting fires on state and private land...and those agencies are woefully underfunded.

[JDPriestly]

5. Very hard to fight fires without water.

This could be a bad year although we haven't had enough rain to cause a lot of brush to grow so there may be less fuel to feed a fire should one break out. I'm not counting on that, but it is a ray of hope.

[tofuandbeer]

7. +1

[tofuandbeer]

6. Yup. I think everyone's predicting a horrible wildfire season for California this year...

...considering the awful drought we're in.
Let's hope some of this upcoming rain douses those predictions somewhat.
It's great to know that the President and Governor Brown are trying to keep one step ahead of this.

[DemoTex]

8. I'm working fire season in southern Arizona this year

I've been alerted to a possible early start (maybe as early as March 23), and a long, long fire season. Southern Arizona is in a historical drought situation. Long term fire weather forecasts are not good.

IMO this is a good move by President Obama. Last year's USFS and NPS fire budget crisis robbed from recreation to fight wildland fires.

California is already a fire hellhole. Watch for my updates from Arizona and DUer Nadin Brzezinski's excellent reports from southern California.


The "Pole Creek" fire looms over the Three Sisters and Broken Top started on September 9, 2012. The lightning-sparked fire eventually burned over 30,000 acres in the Sisters Wilderness of central Oregon. I took this photo of the fire late afternoon of September 9, 2012.