Why fighting Rocky Mountain wildfires will become more expensive

Brendan Bosworth in New West: Colorado was ablaze throughout March, with 27 wildfires erupting across the northern Front Range during the month. Unusually hot, dry conditions and gusty winds combined to make the beginning of spring an anomaly – the number of fires was nine times the 15-year average for March.

While state, county and federal agencies, including the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, work hard to extinguish Colorado wildfires and save homes and infrastructure close to forested public lands each year, their efforts contribute to an ironic national situation. The legacy of land managers working for over a century to suppress about 98 percent of the more than 70,000 wildfires that ignite across the country annually has created a climate where wildfires tend to be worse than they would be if more fires were left to burn out naturally, because of the buildup of deadwood and other fuels.

Historically, in the Rocky Mountains, frequent fires in low-lying ponderosa pine forests would thin out small trees and scour out dead material on the forest floor, ensuring large trees remained widely spaced, explained Bill Romme, professor of fire ecology at Colorado State University, in a telephone interview.

….Suppressing wildfires is something that works in the short-term but in the long-term it’s not sustainable, said Romme. “The longer you prevent fire in an ecosystem the more flammable material develops and the more intense, the more difficult to control the fire will be when it eventually comes,” he said.

...While the aesthetic benefits of living on the border of pristine forests cannot be denied, an increase in the number of houses close to combustible trees winds up costing taxpayers when wildfires strike. ….Essentially, this means a handful of people benefit from taxpayer dollars to protect their homes from fires, since the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency and state agencies bear most of the costs for firefighting in interface regions, he explained.

Combating wildfires is not a frugal affair. Together the Forest Service and Department of the Interior received $3.5 billion in federal funds to manage wildfires in 2010. Of this, $2.5 billion went to the Forest Service, amounting for just less than half the agency’s total budget…

Lakewood, CO, August 4, 2008 -- A single air tanker make a run on the Green Mountain that was started by lighting. High winds delayed the use of air support till later in the day. Photo Michael Rieger/FEMA