A Billion Dollars Up In Smoke
Thursday, August 22nd, 2013So, far this year the U.S. Forest Service has spent $967 million fighting wildfires. They have been forced to divert $600 million from timber and recreation to aid the fire fighting budget.
“I recognize that this direction will have significant effects on the public whom we serve and on our many valuable partners, as well as agency operations, target accomplishments and performance,” Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell wrote. “I regret that we have to take this action and fully understand that it only increases costs and reduces efficiency.”
So far this year there have been over 33,000 fires that have burned more than 5,300 square miles.
Many people question whether the government should be spending any money fighting fires.
“The Forest Service, when it lobbied for the FLAME Act, said, `Look, if you give us this reserve fund for large fires, we won’t need to raid other parts of our budget,”‘ said Andy Stahl, director of the watchdog group Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. “The Forest Service instead used up the FLAME money and is now using other parts of its budget. That is giving the agency a blank check and it just keeps putting more zeros on it.”