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Did you know ongoing wildfire battles in the West hurt us here at home in Indiana?

Wildfires have burned through more than 8 million acres of American land so far this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Catastrophic fires are happening more and more often as increasingly extreme weather leads to bigger and bigger fires. More people now live near fire-prone forests, too, so firefighting costs go up year after year.

While earthquakes and other disasters have access to emergency funds for damages and recovery, wildfire disasters are paid for directly from U.S Forest Service and Department of the Interior funds.

When these agencies make their annual budgets, they have no choice but to plan for costs based on past fire season averages. But each new season is proving to be anything but average.

This flawed way to pay for fighting these fires means that federal agencies must choose: Put the fires out, or spend the money on the conservation land management work they’re also charged with executing. That choice has big consequences.

While their priority is understandably to save lives and property, it means agencies borrow money from programs like forest management, forest health and recreation to make up budget shortfalls. But it’s that conservation work — such as managing forests and removing brush — that helps reduce the risk of fire in the first place.

When fires are part of a forest’s natural cycle – or set and controlled by trained fireworkers – they can actually help plants and animals. And they prevent the pile-up of grass and brush that otherwise could serve as fuel for larger fires. This is part of healthy forest management.

But when forests aren’t healthy — when brush builds up and groups of trees are too tightly packed — wildfires can rage out of control. They destroy homes and communities, harm natural and cultural resources and threaten human lives.

It doesn’t make sense to have firefighting come at the expense of projects that would make our lands more productive, healthier and less fire-prone in the first place.

We need to break out of this cycle, and Congress holds the keys to a solution.

Lawmakers are currently considering how to fix this problem so we can pay for firefighting, reduce the risk of future megafires and still benefit from conservation and other programs here in Indiana.

The House of Representatives and Senate have introduced the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act (WDFA). And the Senate recently added a comprehensive fire-funding solution to a flood insurance bill.

As partners focused on the quality of life and prosperity of rural Indiana, where forestry drives local economies, we think both approaches are a great idea, and they can’t be enacted soon enough. We’ve been collaborating with a broad coalition — including sportsmen’s groups, agribusiness organizations, forestry partners, and others — to show just how much bipartisan support is out there for these bills.

You can help too, by letting your members of Congress know a wildfire funding fix is important to you.

We know that firefighting costs are going to continue to rise. And under the government’s current funding structure, the U.S. can’t keep up.

We need not only to fight wildfires, but also to keep our forests healthy to prevent those fires to begin with — and protect Indiana land, property and citizens at the same time. 



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