Wenatchee World - Wildfire, and Our Responsibility

Op-Ed

By Reps. Dave Reichert, Dan Newhouse, and Cathy McMorris Rogers

Although the dry summer air has been replaced by rain and snow, the damage caused by Washington wildfires continues to increase in the form of flooding and landslides. These fires have had lasting impacts on the people who were displaced and the communities who have been burdened by the costs of rebuilding.

Even in the dead of winter, we must not forget that last year's wildfire season wiped out over one million acres and destroyed more than 300 homes, making it the most destructive season in our state's history. We remember the sacrifice of three U.S. Forest Service firefighters lost in the Twisp River Fire: Tom Zbyszewski, Andrew Zajac, and Richard Wheeler. We pray for recovery for those who were gravely injured.

We do not want next summer to be another one for the record books. That is why we are working proactively in Congress now to implement measures that would help prevent future wildfires and better assist communities hit the hardest by natural disasters.

Throughout the past year we visited areas ravaged by fire and the firefighters who serve them. We've also held roundtable discussions with community leaders to identify actions we can take to protect our region from devastating fires. One of the most promising strategies to prevent and contain wildfires is restoring the health of our forests. For decades, inadequate federal forest management has allowed our forests to become overgrown, disease ridden, and vulnerable to wildfires. This lapse in forest management programs is partially a result of a failed funding model. Currently, emergency wildfire response does not have the same budget process as other natural disaster responses, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods.

Throughout most of the last decade, year after year the U.S. Forest Service has exhausted funds allocated for wildfire suppression long before the fire season has ended, forcing them to dip into other accounts intended for forest health and management activities. This has left the agency with few resources available to clean up hazardous fuels and maintain healthy forests. As these past several summers have proven, if we do not have sufficient funds for management programs then our national forests will continue to be a tinderbox, waiting to be lit by a match or struck by a bolt of lightning.

Realizing this dangerous cycle, we have supported measures in Congress that would clean up our fire-prone forests and strengthen our management programs. We are cosponsors of the Wildfire Disaster Fund Act (H.R. 167) which ends the Forest Service fire borrowing and treats wildfire response budgets just like every other natural disaster.

This past July, we voted for and the House passed the bipartisan Resilient Federal Forests Act (H.R. 2647). This legislation will ensure that processes are in place to better clean up our forests, and would save critical forest management funds by authorizing the U.S. Forest Service to borrow from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when they need additional resources to fight wildfires, instead of taking funds originally intended for management purposes. We are cosponsors of the FORESTS Act (H.R. 2178), introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, which would assist forest maintenance projects.

Specifically, this legislation would make it easier and less costly for the Forest Service and stakeholders to collaborate in responsible timber harvesting efforts, which is an important part of wildfire prevention and can provide additional economic opportunities for our rural communities. Removing rotting or diseased timber is critical to protecting the health of the surrounding ecosystems, animal habitats, and the beauty of our forests that folks throughout our region have enjoyed for generations.

Washington state and the areas impacted throughout our region will rebuild, and we have already been overwhelmed by the resilience we have seen throughout our communities. We are pleased that FEMA has made public assistance available to counties and municipalities in order to help fix damaged infrastructure. However under current federal guidelines, residents in rural communities are not treated fairly when calculating individual assistance. We cosponsored the Individual Assistance Improvement Act to improve the FEMA Individual Assistance process by taking into account the devastating impact fires and other disasters have on rural communities.

We are committed to bringing your stories to Congress and will continue fighting until we get meaningful forest management legislation on the president's desk and across the finish line.

Reichert represents Washington's 8th Congressional District, Newhouse the 4th District and McMorris Rodgers the 5th.

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