Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday cited the growing wildfire scare in California to push the administration’s climate change warnings and raise concerns about running out of money to fight the flames.
In a 16-page budget report, Ag’s U.S. Forest Service said that spending on fire suppression for the first time this year has consumed more than 50 percent of its budget and could reach 67 percent, or nearly $1.8 billion by 2025.
A key culprit, added the forest service, is climate change, President Obama’s top priority as he finishes out his two terms.
In “The Rising Cost of Wildfire Operations,” the agency said:
“Changing climatic conditions across regions of the United States are driving increased temperatures–particularly in regions where fire has not been historically prominent. This change is causing variations and unpredictability in precipitation and is amplifying the effects and costs of wildfire. Related impacts are likely to continue to emerge in several key areas: limited water availability for fire suppression, accumulation at unprecedented levels of vegetative fuels that enable and sustain fires, changes in vegetation community composition that make them more fire prone, and an extension of the fire season to as many as 300 days in many parts of the country.”
It also blamed climate change for longer fire “seasons,” adding, “Climate change has led to fire seasons that are now on average 78 days longer than in 1970. The U.S. burns twice as many acres as three decades ago and Forest Service scientists believe the acreage burned may double again by mid-century.”
Vilsack also blamed climate change. “Climate change and other factors are causing the cost of fighting fires to rise every year,” he said in a statement.
“These factors are causing the cost of fighting fires to rise every year, and there is no end in sight,” added Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.
The agency has to dramatically juggle money to find funds to fight fires. There are now 14 wildfires in California alone. The Forest Service manages 193 million acres.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
