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by KTAR.com (June 14th, 2011 @ 11:18am)
Policy >>
Comments: 2
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., talks with reporters before GOP caucus luncheon and after testifying about forest management on Capitol Hill Tuesday, June 14, 2011 in
Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON -- Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl has told Congress that the federal government must change its priorities and manage national forests to reduce the potential for wildfires such as those currently ravaging his home state.
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Fighting forest fires is stressful job The Republican senator testified Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to consider the wildfire management programs of the federal land management agencies.
"The current federal system continues to give funding priority to suppression," Kyl said. "If we are going to save what is left of our forests, we must change our priorities and aggessively treat our forests at the pace and scale these fires are occurring.
"That means thinking big and acting now. Treatments focused solely on hazardous fuel reduction around communities may be appropriate in some cases, but they do not achieve the enduring fire protection and ecosystem restoration that are urgently required. A greater investment in landscape-scale forest restoration treatments will reverse the degradation of our forests while simultaneously reducing the risk of catastrophic crown fires."
Kyl said forest manager need to think on a scale of 500,000 to a million or more acres at a time and do periodic environmental review on that scale.
Arizona has proposed a program, called the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, which would change forest restoration and management efforts from a short-term, project-by-project basis to an integrated, landscalescale program, Kyl said.
"The goal is to strategically treat about a million acres across four national forests in Northern Arizona over the next 20 years. Bear in mind, that's how many acres burned in just the Wallow fire this year and the
Rodeo-Chediski fire nine years ago."
A large-scale program will require a significant federal investment of money and other resources, Kyl said, along with cooperation from environmentalists.
Kyl said Arizona is ground zero at present for "mega fires," noting the 469,000 Wallow fire in the Apache-
Sitgreaves National Forest and the 171,000 Horsehoe Two fire in the Coronado National Forest. He noted two other smaller fires also are burning in the Coronado.
"In Arizona alone, the fire suppression bill is over $65 million and growing," he said.
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"The millions of dollars spent year after year on fire suppression does not reflect the true costs of unnaturally severe wildfires," Kyl said. He said the affected communities and the ecosystems experience serious longer-term impacts, which the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition estimates are 2 to 30 times the suppression costs.
"Although the need to suppress fires is not going to go away, it is widely recognized that active forest restoration management can reduce the risk of catastrophic fire, increase firefighting safety and effectiveness, improve recovery time and contribute to ecosystem function, before, during and after a fire,"
Kyl said.
He said the White Mountain Project, which began in 2004, is the first large-scale Forest Service stewardship contract in the nation, and that its work in the Apache-Sitgreaves around Eager, Nutrioso, even
L t 2 C t

Last 2 Comments
Greer made the Wallow's fire effects less severe than they could have been.
"Prevention is always cheaper than fighting the disease," Kyl said.
The feds need to do one thing.
Dan H
Reply Abuse Vote
Go back to the old a forest of many uses. The leftist aka progressives treehuggers took over management of the forest. And the forest fires are bigger then ever.
Reply Abuse Vote Sorry, Sen. Kyl...
Howdy
You are a few burned-acres short in the timing of your statement.
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