WASHINGTON – The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) today applauded passage in the U.S. Senate of legislation to improve efforts to fight catastrophic wildfires by creating a dedicated fund within the Forest Service to pay for fire suppression activities and prevent other valuable land management programs from being raided in heavy fire years. The legislation, known as the FLAME Act, was recently passed as part of the 2010 Interior & Environment Appropriations Act.
“Catastrophic wildfires do immeasurable harm to habitat, valuable public forest resources, and, often times, the privately-owned forests that border public lands. The FLAME Act will provide adequate fire suppression funding without other programs having to suffer. We are thankful for the leadership of Senators Bingaman, Murkowski, and Feinsteinon this issue and hope the legislation can move quickly through conference and to the President for his signature,” said AF&PA President and CEO Donna Harman.
Fire suppression funds are often reallocated from other land management programs during severe fire years, leaving little money available for the forest management efforts that are essential to restoring forest health and preventing the massive greenhouse gas emissions that come from wildfires. As the bill now heads to conference with the House, AF&PA will urge conferees to include the FLAME Act in the final appropriations package.
Fire suppression costs consume over half of the Forest Service’s discretionary budget. Between 1999 and 2003, $2.2 billion of the $3.5 billion spent on fire fighting was diverted from other Forest Service programs. It can take years to get these funds repaid—if they are repaid at all—a practice which causes severe disruption in the delivery of other Forest Service resource management programs.