Interior Dept. boosts wildfire risk aid
BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. is adding $103 million this year to its budget for wildfire risk reduction and burnedarea rehabilitation throughout the country as well as establishing an interagency wildland firefighter health and well-being program, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Friday.
Haaland made the announcement after a briefing on this year’s wildfire season at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, which coordinates the nation’s wildland firefighting efforts.
The U.S. is having one of its worst starts to the wildfire season with more than 30,000 fires that have scorched 4,600 square miles. That’s well above the 10-year average for the same period, about 23,500 wildfires and 1,800 square miles burned.
About $80 million will be used to speed up the removal of potential wildfire hazards on over 3,000 square miles of Interior Department land, a 30% increase over last year. An additional $20 million will bolster postwildfire landscape recovery.
The money is coming from the $1-trillion infrastructure deal President Biden signed late last year.
“As wildfire seasons become longer, more intense and more dangerous, President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is bringing much-needed support to communities across the country to increase the resilience of lands and better support federal wildland firefighters,” Haaland said.
The firefighter well-being program, which includes the Forest Service, will address physical and mental health needs for seasonal and yearround wildland firefighters and will include post-traumatic stress disorder care. The fire center in recent years has started encouraging firefighters to seek mental health help after an increase in firefighter suicides.
“Standing up a targeted interagency effort to provide trauma-informed mental health care is critical,” Haaland said.
The program will establish prevention and mental health training for wildland firefighters.
About $3 million will be used for climate-related research that includes landscape resiliency, prescribed fires, and greenhouse gas and smoke emissions.