Kent Woodruff: Major win for Washington wildfire fighting in congressional spending bill

Last week a major piece of congressional legislation was signed into law that will dramatically change the way we fight wildfires here in Washington. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Sen. Maria Cantwell, the federal government has finally passed a wildfire fix that improves funding security for not just fire programs, but for many other discretionary programs of the U.S. Forest Service through 2027.

I’ve lived in the Methow Valley for 25 years, and recently retired from a long career as a Forest Service biologist. As part of my job, an additional assignment each year included helping respond to our region’s increasingly intense wildfires. I raised three sons here in Okanogan County, and all three eventually served as wildland firefighters – with one now serving as a recruit at the North Cascades Smokejumper Base.

It doesn’t take a personal connection, though, to notice that the American West is increasingly under risk from larger and deadlier wildfires. Many of us in Washington have seen firsthand how fire seasons are longer and conditions have worsened, with no end in sight.

Sen. Cantwell deserves gratitude from all of us in communities throughout Eastern and central Washington for her powerful voice on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she helped craft the Wildfire Suppression Funding and Forest Management Activities Act and then attached it to last week’s $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill.

This is welcome progress on such a critically important issue. In 2015 alone, the Forest Service borrowed $700 million for fire suppression from other programs within the agency. While Congress eventually paid many of these funds back, the short-term uncertainty resulted in delaying non-wildfire projects and freezing non-wildfire accounts – hurting programs like campsite maintenance and trail construction.

Now with the omnibus bill we finally have legislation that corrects this problem with a $2.25 billion fund that is available starting in 2020. The fund increases by $100 million each year until 2027. This legislation will free up fire prevention programs and give more funding security to programs for recreation, wildlife, fisheries, range, soil and watersheds. This gives the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management more flexibility in working with state agencies for fuel reduction and streamlines some analyses for improving forest health.

Wildfires are a huge issue for communities in the West. Right here in Okanogan County we have endured dozens of fires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres and destroyed hundreds of homes. In 2015 alone, more than 1 million acres burned in wildfires in Washington, with much of that total in Okanogan County. Since 2000, more than 3 million acres in Washington have burned, and in 2017 nearly 10 million acres burned across the United States. There is no expectation that the years ahead will be any quieter or calmer.

Washington is lucky to have a champion like Maria Cantwell, who passed this bill by patiently working for years in collaboration with her colleagues and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, all while making sure the forest industry and conservationists had their voices heard. We all win with this long-needed legislation – and Washington’s firefighting health is now massively improved for the next decade.

Kent Woodruff is a retired biologist with the U.S. Forest Service. He lives in Twisp, Washington.