Toward a Comprehensive Solution: Emergency Wildfire Suppression Costs

The National Association of State Foresters (NASF) has been a leading advocate for a solution to the ever-increasing impact of emergency fire suppression costs on the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior's constrained budgets. Fire suppression costs for the agencies have exceeded $1 billion every year since 2000.  In 2008, the Forest Service spent over 50% of its budget on wildland fire suppression. 

On October 29, 2009, the House and the Senate passed the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010, which included Title V – The FLAME Act of 2009. President Obama signed this bill into law on October 30, 2009. The measure establishes a new approach to budgeting for costly wildfires, which continually drain the budgets of the Forest Service and Department of the Interior and lead to the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from other agency forest and land management priorities. 

The FLAME Act of 2009 establishes two FLAME Funds in the Department of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2010; one for the Department of the Interior funded at $61 million and one for the Forest Service funded at $413 million in FY2010. These two funds will reduce the need for agencies to transfer funds to wildfire suppression from other agency programs, which have historically led to considerable disruptions to important program functions.

These funds are subject to normal appropriations for funding from year-to-year. Agencies are expected to develop new methods for formulating fire suppression funding estimates for Wildland Fire Management (WFM) and the FLAME Funds. The agencies will be required to report to Congress on a quarterly basis on the use of FLAME funds. This accountability will help Congress and the agencies avoid last minute emergency actions.

The conference report language encourages well thought-out suppression planning from year to year through a new approach to budgeting for both the FLAME funds and the WFM appropriation. Additionally, Congress expects the Administration to move away from using a 10-year rolling average in estimating future fire costs and to use a more predictive formula that will eliminate the need for transfers. Congress further expects the administration to keep their commitment to appropriately and fully estimate suppression costs, but not at the expense of other agency programs.

The action was backed by the Partner Caucus on Fire Suppression Solutions -- a coalition of environmental, industry, outdoor recreation, and forestry organizations led by NASF, The Wilderness Society and American Forests. The group worked with congressional and federal agency leaders in Washington, D.C., over the past year to find a solution to the burdens caused by the rapidly escalating costs of fighting emergency wildfires, which account for more than 95 percent of all acres burned and consume 85 percent of all suppression costs.

MORE:

Obama signs bill to help agencies manage skyrocketing wildfire suppression costs (press release, Nov. 2, 2009)

Partner Caucus on Fire Suppression Funding Solutions bill summary (Nov. 3, 2009)