![]() But so does 65 percent of the United States’ population being affected by wildfire. Americans impacted by wildfires each year (212 million or nearly 65 percent of the country’s population) deserve better.”Ĭall me old-fashioned, but $22.6 billion sounds like a lot of money. It is, quite frankly, an embarrassment, considering the stated priorities of preserving our forests. Even with the most recent ten-year funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the federal funding commitment is not keeping pace. Despite $8.5 billion of increased allocations since 2000, the number of burned acres of forestland also increased by more than 75 percent during the same period. This figure represents only 0.28 percent of the total federal budget. “he DOI, USDA, Homeland Security, Defense/Energy and others will spend approximately $16.8 billion on forest maintenance and wildfire management. “A put-the-fire-out-first strategy should be fundamental.” However, in the authors’ analysis, the money spent on the cure is way, way short of what is needed. (If I’ve left anyone out, just wait your turn is coming.)Įfforts have been made to stop the Big Wildfire problem by a number of agencies in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida, in Australia and South Africa, southern Europe, and the northernmost forests of Canada and Russia. Wildfires have plagued the planet - in the U.S. And this is not just a Western United States problem. ![]() Wildfires have come to dominate the news in the past 30 or more years since they have become larger and harder to stop, and the destruction caused by them has reached epic proportions. ![]() Instead, it turned out to be a surprisingly thorough and readable book written by two high-level business troubleshooters who are genuinely concerned about climate change and the role of wildfires in making the planet considerably hotter than it used to be. Wodehouse, and then dive into something that looked like it was penned by the Government Accounting Office, something Congress orders when it wants to give one of the federal government’s agencies a good spanking. First, I had to set aside the book I was already reading, The Complete Works of P.G. When I was asked to review a new book, Running Out of Time, by David Auchterlonie and Jeffrey Lehman, I was underwhelmed. Running Out of Time: Wildfires and Our Imperiled Forestsĭavid L. ![]() Our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to his co-workers on the Gold Beach crew. Sapper was an avid baseball player, chess player, and skier who planned to attend grad school in earth sciences this fall at the University of British Columbia. Coquille Fire & Rescue said the vehicle left the roadway above the community of Powers. KDRV-TV reported that Sapper was on duty and traveling with his crew when their rig was involved in a vehicle crash. “We have a tight-knit community on the Gold Beach and Powers Ranger Districts, and we stand together in grief and support for his family, friends, and fellow firefighters during this heartbreaking time.” Benjamin Sapper photo courtesy USFSīenjamin graduated from Boulder High School and the University of Colorado with a degree in Applied Mathematics. “This is a devastating loss of one of our own Gold Beach firefighters,” District Ranger Kailey Guerrant told KATU-TV. Benjamin Sapper from Boulder, Colorado was a handcrew member on the Gold Beach Ranger District of the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon. A 21-year-old federal firefighter was killed in an on-duty vehicle accident on Friday, August 4, near Powers, Oregon. ![]()
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