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U.S.
Senator Member: Agriculture, Energy, Veterans' Affairs, Ethics and Aging Committees |
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For Immediate
Release June 21, 2006 |
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Comm. Director 303-455-7600 Andrew Nannis – Press Secretary 202-224-5852 |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Colorado currently faces the worst wildfire conditions since 2002, and the Mato Vega Fire scorching over 9,000 acres in rural Costilla County and other fires currently burning in our state may signal the beginning of a wildfire crisis in Colorado stemming from a combination of extreme drought and bark beetle infestations. In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing today, United States Senator Ken Salazar urged the Forest Service to streamline its funding guidelines to allow for more efficient prevention and firefighting activities. “Federal land managers and local governments should never be put in a position where they are reluctant to order needed resources to fight a wildfire because of a question as to who will pay the costs,” said Senator Salazar. “It is common-sense that the Departments, in following the recommendations of the GAO report, should make sure of that. Any guidance given should not be rigid guidelines that take away the flexibility needed to address different wildfire scenarios and situations.” Senator Salazar also focused on the importance of a fair funding agreement for fighting these fires, saying, “Local entities and states want to know that they are being treated equitably and not taking on undue, increased shares of the cost.” According to the U.S Drought Monitor, a majority of Colorado is considered to be in a severe or extreme drought situation. Along with the drought, Colorado is also seeing an extraordinary insect infestation moving through our forests. It is estimated that over 7 million trees on over 1.5 million of acres have experienced beetle kill leaving behind even greater hazardous fuel conditions. Already this year, Senator Salazar fought to add $30 million to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to directly address fire hazards resulting from insect infestation, including the bark beetle, across the country. The funding was later removed by conference committee after a veto threat by President Bush. Senator Salazar was not part of the conference committee. In addition, Senator Salazar joined with Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah to seek $10 million in funding for the Rural Fire Assistance (RFA) grant program for rural volunteer fire departments, and has reached out to the Air Force to ask about firefighting assistance because 11 of 12 helicopters used by the National Guard to fight fires have been deployed to Iraq. After the hearing, Senator Salazar followed up with a letter Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Mark Rey. In his letter to Undersecretary Rey, Senator Salazar urged him to provide additional funding to USFS hazardous fuels projects in Colorado over the next three months. A copy of Senator Salazar’s letter to Undersecretary Rey can be viewed by clicking here. In addition, Senator Salazar also wrote today to Dale Bosworth, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and Kathleen Clarke, Director of the Bureau of Land Management, urging them both to “swiftly approve any and all requests from the teams on the ground for additional equipment and other resources.” A copy of Senator Salazar’s letter to Bosworth and Clarke can be viewed by clicking here. The Forest Service reports that 113 projects covering 280,000 acres of hazardous fuels treatments in Colorado have been approved through NEPA and are available for implementation pending funding, and 235,000 additional acres in Colorado are in the approval process. Of these approved treatments, 65 percent are located in the critical wildland-urban interface. However, at the current funding levels, Colorado will only receive anywhere between 35,000 and 83,000 acres of fuels treatment. # # #
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