Current Issues

Over the last few decades we have been experiencing more large fires, more extreme fire behavior, and more acres burned annually on average due to hazardous fuel buildups, nonnative species invasions, insect and disease infestations, warmer and drier conditions, and long term drought. Improving forest conditions through mechanical thinning, prescribed fires, and other methods has been proven to be highly effective in reducing the risk of wildfire. When a wildfire starts within or burns into a fuel treatment area, an assessment is conducted to evaluate the resulting impacts on fire behavior and fire response actions. Since 2006, the agency has completed more than 3,000 assessments. About 89% of the fuel treatments were effective in changing fire behavior and/or helping with control of the wildfire.

Forest Managers need the flexibility to use the full suite of management tools to confront the conditions we are seeing on forest throughout the country—from California’s Tree Mortality that demand quick active management to the Coastal Forests of South Carolina, which thrive on prescribed fires.

Active management is the suite of tools such as timber harvest, non-commercial mechanical restoration treatments, grazing, prescribed burning, and managing natural ignitions from wildfires to make landscapes more resilient to stressors such as drought, insect and disease, and catastrophic wildfires.

The Forest Service is committed to stepping up forest management to restore healthy, resilient forests. This will result in jobs and economic benefits for rural communities and be responsive to the American taxpayers.

Active management of the nation’s forests plays an important role in helping to sustain rural communities/economies and the associated forest products infrastructure.

Forest and rangeland products have a vital role to play in restoring forest and grassland ecosystems and maintaining sustainable natural resource economies. Coordinated state and federal action can expand markets for forest and rangeland goods and services to support forest restoration objectives and contribute to diversified, sustainable natural resource economies.

Over the past several years, we have made great progress in integrating across programs, collaborating with partners, working across boundaries, and using new authorities to expand our forest restoration work, such as the Good Neighbor Authority. I’m proud of the work that’s been done under this authority in places like Idaho where last year the Idaho Department of Lands auctioned the first Good Neighbor Authority timber sale on the Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest, which is expected to generate about 4.5 million board feet and $1.2 million dollars in revenue for restoration projects. To be successful we must expand our use of these best practices and tools and address the process and policy barriers that remain.

We are committed to working together with the people who care about the management of their national forests and grasslands. This includes helping communities to become fire adapted, which is another key component of the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.

In Fiscal Year 2017, U.S. Forest Service fire suppression costs exceeded $2.4 billion, making it the most expensive year to date.

Our appropriation for fire suppression in Fiscal Year 2017 was $1.6 billion, which meant we had to transfer funds from other programs to cover fire suppression costs. This is very disruptive to other critical Forest Service programs and services, including programs to reduce wildfire risk through mechanical thinning, prescribed fires, and other means.

Over the past few decades, wildfire suppression costs have increased as fire seasons have grown longer, and the frequency, size and severity of wildfires has increased. Approximately one to two percent of fires escape initial attack and become large, long duration fires. These large fires account for about 30 percent of total firefighting costs.

The U.S. Forest Service is the only federal agency that is required to fund its entire emergency management program out of its regular appropriated discretionary budget. Currently the fire suppression budget is funded at a rolling ten year average of appropriations, while the overall Forest Service budget has remained relatively flat.

Since 2002, the U.S. Forest Service's annual wildfire suppression costs have exceeded the 10-year average in all but 3 years (2005, 2009, and 2010).

This year, fire suppression accounts for about 57% of the Forest Service budget. If the Forest Service must continue to plan to fund the 10-year average, which is increasing about $100 million per year, we project that, by 2021, 67percent of our budget will be requested for fire.

In a flat budget environment, the more that we have to request for fire suppression, the less that we have available to request for other programs including those that can reduce fire risk, such as mechanical thinning and prescribed fires.

In response to increased wildfire activity, fire staffing has increased 114 percent – from 5,700 employees in 1998 to over 12,000 in 2016. Over the same period, staffing levels for those employees performing other critical work have decreased by 39 percent – from 18,000 employees in 1998 to fewer than 11,000 in 2016.

We are working closely with the Administration and Congress to reform the way wildfire suppression is currently funded. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is committed to finding a permanent solution that restores the balance between fire suppression and other core mission responsibilities.

The Forest Service is working with the Administration and Congress on a fire funding fix that achieves two things:
- Stop the growth of the amount of funding budgeted for fire suppression, and
- Pays for the costliest fires, which are disasters, outside of the agency’s annual appropriation. If the fire funding fix achieves these two goals, then the practice of fire transfer will be eliminated.

A fix to the fire funding situation will right size the Forest Service budget and allow us to direct more energy into active management of our forests. Active management of National Forests is critical to reduce fire risk and to create resilient landscapes, which is a key component of the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy that we’ve been working on for the last several years now in cooperation with other federal, tribal, state, and local partners across the country.