Aug 28 U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Friday the federal government has spent more than $1 billion fighting this year's deadly wildfires, which have scorched drought-stricken Western states.
The U.S. Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service, is spending more than $150 million a week beating back several dozen blazes, he said.
Vilsack was joined by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill that would assign national disaster status to the largest 1 to 2 percent of wildfires, freeing up emergency funding and preventing borrowing from fire prevention budgets.
“My concern is that for much of the West, this could be the new norm,” Wyden said, adding that 11 western senators have also backed the measure and would make its passage a priority in September.
Active wildfires across the region have scorched almost 1.7 million acres (688,000 hectares) of land, roughly the size of Delaware, stretching resources thin and prompting a rare call for reinforcements from the U.S. military and as far afield as Australia.
Oregon and Washington state are experiencing the worst conflagrations, combining to account for nearly two-thirds of the total, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
CLICK HERE to read the full article
Source; Reuters
