Billions & billions - saddle up!
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Friends of Confluence West –
Over the past few months, the US Forest Service has been rolling out its 10-year Wildfire Risk Reduction Strategy (aka the ‘fireshed’ plan.)
With Congress’ historic appropriation, billions of dollars are headed to western Forest Service Regions over the next four-to-five years. This new funding is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to make sure source water protection and climate change adaptation are centerpieces of this new ‘fireshed’ strategy.
So, sharpen those pencils, pick up your phone, lunch with your favorite Forest Service person, and send those emails – time for westerners to weigh in. Saddle up!
The good news -
Over the next five years, the Forest Service’s annual budget will increase from the current five billion (or so) dollars to nine billion (or so) dollars.
With their new strategy, the Forest Service is emphasizing the imperative of working with its partners.
Each Region can tailor how they roll out the 10-year strategy, and this is ‘no-year’ money. (Caveat: The FS is starting with - understandably - NEPA-ready priority lands in the first two years.)
The challenging news -
Currently, the 10-year wildfire risk reduction strategy doesn’t emphasize source water protection or climate change adaptation.
Instead, the ‘fireshed’ strategy and funding focus on the WUI and built infrastructure.
What to do -
Talk with/meet with/email your Regional Forester about your concerns – remember, the FS is emphasizing working with partners.*
Find out what your District Ranger or Forest Supervisor is planning for “fireshed” work – and give them information/ideas as to why that work should include source water protection and how it could help with climate change adaptation.
Questions? Give us a shout, and if we can’t answer your question, we’ll connect you with someone who can.
For the West,
Kimery
A few weeks ago, after hearing from a partner organization, Region 5 (California) held a session on water protection within its larger partner ‘fireshed’ roundtable. The Regional Forester and her staff know too well the consequences of catastrophic wildfires and that their partner organizations want to see more of a focus on source water protection and climate change. (At Confluence West, we call this achieving a ‘squeaky wheel’ objective!)
P.S. Why Confluence West? It’s all about the elephant. Learn more www.confluence-west.org and please support our work.