Fire outlook is bad but funds could help, federal official says at Boise fire center visit
The West could see another intense fire season akin to last year’s, but officials said federal efforts to improve wildfire response and prevention are underway.
In a news conference at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise on Monday morning, Deputy Secretary of Interior Tommy Beaudreau said fire experts are already anticipating a difficult fire year.
“Last year was one of the most severe fire seasons this country ever experienced, where we were at the highest preparedness level fighting fire for 99 days,” Beaudreau said. “That was a record. Some of the outlook right now — and it’s still early on — is very similar conditions because of drought, lack of snowpack.”
Beaudreau noted that federal agencies are in the process of converting hundreds of seasonal firefighting jobs into career positions and raising the minimum wage that federal firefighters earn. About 40 firefighting positions in Boise have been converted from seasonal to year-round jobs, he said.
Those efforts are funded by President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, which the president signed in November. The legislation directs $8 billion to “a suite of programs aimed at reducing wildfire risks, detecting wildfires, instituting firefighter workforce reform programs, and building more resilient infrastructure,” Beaudreau said. It lays out funding for the next five years, but the deputy secretary said the Biden administration plans to pursue long-term solutions for addressing wildfire concerns.
Beaudreau said some of the infrastructure funding will also go toward educating the public about wildfire risks and mitigating wildfire danger in wildland-urban interface areas, where homes meet wildfire-prone landscapes.
“People love to live in beautiful places, and so there is always a very high priority on protecting communities in those beautiful places,” he said.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 2:17 PM.
