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Watchdog group rolls out new database to track wildfire spending

Oct 28, 2024 | 4 min read | Print Article

This article by Alaina Mencinger first appeared in The Santa Fe New Mexican on October 28, 2024

A new database of federal funding dedicated to wildfires found about 52% of the funds go toward direct response, dwarfing spending on research, mitigation and recovery.

Between fiscal years 2015 and 2024, the federal government appropriated at least $59.7 billion to address wildfires — although the number excludes the $897 billion of potentially related programs like forest management that may put a portion towards wildfires.

The Wildfire Federal Spending Database, created by federal budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, tracked line items specifically mentioning wildfires. While the majority went to response, followed by funds to prepare for future wildfires, just 2% went to recovery and 1% to research.

Initial findings published by the group, which is advocating for better tracking of federal funding, pointed to missing appropriations and wildfire-specific funding information.

“What they say about federal funding is accurate — more money goes to suppression than to landscape mitigation and research,” Alan Barton, director of the New Mexico Fire and Watershed Restoration Institute, wrote in an email to The New Mexican.

Fire suppression is so costly that in 2018, Congress created a fund to support Forest Service costs that went above annual fire suppression appropriations, Barton wrote.

Before then, the expenses had been “eating up” the agency’s budget, which resorted to borrowing money from management accounts to cover the costs.

“These funds do open up more funding that the Forest Service can dedicate to its intended purpose of forest management,” Barton wrote.

“However, the challenges of doing mitigation are still enormous — so many acres that need to be treated — and the size and frequency of large fires is increasing, so spending on suppression still exceeds spending on other things.”

That, plus new federal funding in the climate change and infrastructure law passed in 2022, has allowed the Forest Service to hire more staff.

But as a 2027 deadline for both the law and the wildfire suppression fund looms, the agency is looking at “significant budget shortfalls” that could worsen in coming years, Barton wrote.

A potential solution could be separating responsibilities — giving another agency fire suppression duties to allow the Forest Service to focus on management, rather than fighting fires.

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Morika “Mori” Vorenberg Hensley, executive director of the Santa Fe Watershed Association and the 2024 chairwoman of the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition, said the pressure is on to be proactive when it comes to wildfires as climate risks increase.

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That requires more collaboration, data sharing and a pooling of resources.

Vorenberg Hensley said there’s enough research available “to know we need to do something.” Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico are lucky to have some “incredible researchers,” she said.

But more data is never a bad thing.

There’s a real need for increased monitoring, Vorenberg Hensley said, but the resources to do that are limited.

“There is just such a small percentage of funding and a staff capacity, on any level, dedicated to funding and research, as opposed to fire suppression in an emergency,” Vorenberg Hensley said.