Gazette opinion: USDA must let Montana helicopters fight fires

Story from Billings Gazette

The U.S. Forest Service ought to be renamed the U.S. Fire Service.

Over the past 20 years, the costs of fighting wildfire has exploded. This year, for the first time, more than half of the U.S. Forest Service appropriation is directed at firefighting – and it still isn’t enough.

In this summer of terrible Western fires, the problem isn’t just lack of resources but inefficient use of scarce resources. A glaring example is a Forest Service rule that prohibits four Montana firefighting helicopters from attacking fires on federal lands.

“Wildland fires emerge on federal fire protection in full view of our aviation staff, who watched them grow as federal firefighters waited for other ‘approved’ aircraft to be dispatch from distant locations,” Gov. Steve Bullock wrote this week to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

“I am also aware of fires where state aircraft were above wildfires and instructed not to take suppression actions, due to the fact that the fires were on federal fire protection. This makes no sense and puts the safety and property of Montanans at risk.”

Bullock’s complaint is valid and urgent. The key to preventing wildfires from becoming big, dangerous and catastrophically expensive is early attack – stopping the blaze. One percent of wildfires consume 30 percent of all spending. The best strategy is to keep fires from becoming part of the worst 1 percent.

Montana Department of Natural Resources Conservation has been successful in initial attacks with four military helicopters specially modified by the state for firefighting. These aircraft have safely and effectively been used to attack fires with 324-gallon buckets of water.

But the USDA fire policy relayed to the state just last year says the Montana buckets are 100 gallons too big, state forester Bob Harrington told the Associated Press.

So the helicopters can’t fight fire on federal land. At a time when every U.S. wildland firefighting resource is committed and help is being brought in from as far away as New Zealand and Australia, it’s absurd to turn down help right here in Montana. It’s also dangerous. We are all in this fire season together. A fire burning on federal land this afternoon can easily spread to state or private land as heat, drought and unpredictable winds fan the conflagration.

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Meanwhile, this present fire season continues a catastrophic trend that is burning up the Forest Service budget. As more money must be spent on firefighting, dramatically less is spent on everything else. Consider these examples from a Forest Service report released earlier this month:

- In 2001, deferred maintenance funding supported 400 major projects; last year there was money for only three major projects. In the past two years deferred projects included sewer system repairs, water system improvements, dam repairs, and wastewater system rehabilitation. The Forest Service has a deferred maintenance backlog of over $5.1.

- Since 1998, fire staffing within the Forest Service has increased 114 percent, from around 5,700 employees in 1998 to over 12,000 in 2015. Over the same period, staffing levels for those dedicated to managing National Forest lands has decreased by 39 percent— from 18,000 in 1998 to fewer than 11,000 in 2015.

- Projects that implement sustainability best practices to conserve energy and water have been deferred.

- Between last fiscal year and this year, the fire suppression budget grew by $115 million and non-fire programs were reduced by that amount, requiring the agency to forego non-fire activities that improve the health and resilience of forests and mitigate the potential for wildland fire in future years.

Both of Montana’s U.S. senators, Steve Daines and Jon Tester are cosponsors of the Wildland Disaster Funding Act, which would create a separate fund to pay for catastrophic wildfires, so these disasters would no longer consume the Forest Service budget.

“We have to start using common sense and budget for catastrophic wildfires like we do for hurricanes and other natural disasters,” Tester said.

“It is critical that Congress end fire borrowing and ensure that the Forest Service can spend more of its budget on making our national forests more resilient to fire, while also equipping the agency with the tools and authorities it needs to restore active management,” Daines said.

Yes, Congress must act, but it won’t get anything done this fire season. Vilsack must act immediately to let Montana’s firefighting helicopters do their job.

The severity of the fire situation can hardly be overstated. Lives, homes and other property must be protected now. The United States desperately needs a better plan for future funding and fighting fire in an increasingly hotter, drier climate.