Forest Service Expects Expensive Wildfire Season, Renews Call For New Funding Model

A recent report published by the U.S. Forest Service shows that in 1995, 17 percent of the agency's budget went to fighting wildfires. By 2014, those efforts took up 51 percent of the agency's funding.

Forest Service spokesperson Jennifer Jones says that should change. Jones says fire suppression is funded by taking an average of the wildfire costs over the last 10 years, and then applying that to the agency's overall budget. She says that method doesn't really work in an era of large and expensive blazes.

"What we would like to see is that the 1 percent of our fires that cost about 30 percent of our budget are treated as natural disasters," says Jones. "And they would be funded through a disaster cap fund as opposed to coming out of our regular budget."

Jones says by changing the way large and expensive wildfires are funded, the agency can focus its regular budget on things like reducing dead trees and brush. She says if that policy change occurs, the Forest Service could have a better chance of keeping those large fires at bay before they even begin.

Western politicians introduced a bill last year that would've paved the way for such a funding arrangement, but the full Congress didn't support it. U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell testified in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee Tuesday, and predicted that this year's fire season will cost between $800 million and $1.7 billion.