Every year, wildfires torch more than just trees. They scorch homes, overwhelm emergency services, and they cost us more money every year in damages. Wildfires cost about half a trillion dollars in annual damage to the U.S. Outside of just property damage, the fires are burning seven million acres of forest annually.
A common fire metaphor goes like this: the unhelpful neighbor talks down to you about fire codes, flammable materials, and dangerous stove-use habits when your house is on fire and your wife cries for help from an upstairs window. By contrast, a good neighbor would call the fire department and gets out a hose and ladder.
In many ways, this describes Washington politicians when we get hit with devastating fires. For decades, useless bystanders have lectured Montanans about 50–100 year climate patterns while fires actively burned their way across our state.
In Libby, we’ve had a front-row seat to the numerous ways that federal mismanagement leads to devastating consequences. The Endangered Species Act (ESA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA)—to name just a few—were all well-intentioned federal policies that were slowly corrupted over time and have become weaponized to prevent sensible forest management.
Fortunately for Montana and for Libby, last year we sent a firefighter to DC, and he’s bringing solutions to all the problems we’ve observed for the last few decades.
Senator Tim Sheehy’s new bill, the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) provides immediate help for taking on forest fires in the short term, while still mitigating the threat of next year’s fire with preparation and resilience. Here’s how.
In the immediate term, the bill eliminates time-consuming paperwork and duplicative procedures required before emergency responses. It seems insane that we needed permits to fight wildfires at all, but that’s where we were with east-coast bureaucrats managing our forests. FOFA strengthens coordination efforts across agencies through a new Wildfire Intelligence Center (WIC), which would streamline federal responses to combating wildfires as soon as they start. This is the hose, ladder, and the call to the fire department.
Fire prevention requires a long-term approach. Forest fires today are bigger and faster spreading than ever. A WIC can help manage threats by projecting resource needs more accurately, providing data to the local level about the highest-risk areas, and can deploy quick reaction firefighting teams to supplement local teams. Overall this would reduce critical response times.
We need better forest management to adapt to warmer, drier summers, and less federal government interference. FOFA creates new “firesheds”—top priority areas for states to work together without DC middlemen. FOFA streamlines immediate removal of hazardous fuels and expands forest health projects like stewardship contracting and Good Neighbor agreements.
FOFA also protects urban areas near wildlands, supporting retrofits and reducing government bureaucracy to get this work done.
FOFA supports the Community Wildfire Defense Research Program as well as research and innovation into biochar projects, innovating new ways to fight wildfires. However much it bothers coastal elites who don’t understand the Mountain west, FOFA also authorizes prescribed fires to mitigate damage. It allows for quick replanting on the back end of a fire, too. Together, these are long term solutions too, because healthier forests will sink more carbon and slow climate change.
The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed FOFA (H.R. 471), with both Montana representatives voting in favor. The Senate should now follow suit.
You never want a moment wasted when your house is on fire. Even though Montana isn’t burning today, the danger is always one spark away. We need real solutions to stop active fires and to prepare for the future. Thankfully, with Tim Sheehy, a firefighter, serving as our Senator, FOFA covers it all. It’s a breath of fresh air to the smoke-filled chambers of Washington, DC.
Steve Gunderson is a former legislator from Libby. He chaired the House Natural Resources Committee for two sessions, as well as the interim Environmental Quality Council.