Secretary Perdue Addresses Wildfire Supression Funding Shortfalls

With your Land and Livestock Report on the Ag Information Network of the West, I'm Russell Nemetz.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today called on Congress to address the way the

U.S. Forest Service is funded so that the agency is not routinely borrowing money from prevention programs to combat ongoing wildfires. Perdue argued that taking funds from prevention efforts only leaves behind more fuel in the forests for future fires to burn, exacerbating the situation.

"You know the facts. Our budget has moved from 15 percent of fire suppression to over half – 55 percent-plus. It may be more than that this year, in having to fight fires. And there's no way we can do the kind of forest management and the prescribed burning and harvesting and insect control, all those kinds of things that diminish fires."

Currently, the fire suppression portion of the Forest Service budget is funded at a rolling ten-year average of appropriations, while the overall Forest Service budget has remained relatively flat. Because the fire seasons are longer and conditions are worse, the ten-year rolling fire suppression budget average keeps rising, chewing up a greater percentage of the total Forest Service budget each year.

That's your Land and Livestock Report-I'm Russell Nemetz.