EDITORIAL: Congress must act on California wildfire prevention funding

Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)

May 26—If you want an idea of just how dysfunctional Congress is today, take a look at its record on wildfire prevention.

It's inconceivable that Congress has largely failed to act on one of the West's most pressing issues. California's senators and representatives must not let another year pass without making a serious investment in wildfire prevention.

In 2020, nearly 26,000 wildfires burned 9.5 million acres in the Western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. And 75% (7.1 million acres) of the acreage burned was on federal land.

In California, wildfires burned 4.5 million acres in 2020, including five of the six biggest wildfires in state history. The fires killed 31 people and destroyed 10,000 homes and buildings. The total economic toll on California was estimated at $10.5 billion, and that doesn't include the $2.5 billion the state spent fighting the wildfires.

Yet Congress still hasn't reached out a hand to help.

The federal government has a lot to answer for, given that it owns nearly 58% of California's 33 million acres of forest. The state itself owns just 3%. The remainder is owned by private individuals, companies and Native American groups.

In 2018, the U.S. Forest Service reported that 99% of its forest lands were at a high risk of dangerous wildfires, but it was utilizing controlled burns to reduce the fire risk on only 1% of its lands.

The inaction stems from disagreement on the best course of action.

President Trump didn't help matters when, during his 2020 campaign, he said, "I see again the forest fires are starting. ... you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they're like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up. Maybe we're just going to have to make them pay for it because they don't listen to us."

And while fire experts roundly dismissed Trump's approach, Democrats were split on the merits of using prescribed fires to preemptively burn off excess vegetation that can fuel massive wildfires.

But four key senators — Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. — joined forces last week to introduce legislation that would increase the number of prescribed burns and give states more flexibility to regulate controlled burns in winter months.

The bill would give a total of $600 million to the Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior to reclassify federal firefighters as permanent workers, allowing them to work on prescribed fire projects. It also eliminates the overtime pay cap for federal firefighters that has made it difficult for federal agencies to hire a technically skilled, year-around workforce with the expertise to help prevent and extinguish wildfires.

The legislation, coupled with Gov. Gavin Newsom's $2 billion proposal for additional helicopters, engines and firefighting equipment, is essential for reducing the threat of wildfires.

So far this year there have been 2,504 wildfires statewide, up from 1,534 wildfires in the same time period in 2020.

Congress and the California Legislature should pass their respective prevention measures to give the state a fighting chance to slow the spread of wildfires.

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