WYOMING — On March 15, Senators Barrasso (R) and Lummis (R) and Congresswoman Hageman (R) sent a letter to the USDA and Forest Service urging them to include Wyoming in the 10 year plan to protect habitats and communities.
America’s western region is currently in crisis due to increasing wildfires. Under the 10 year program, the Forest Service will commit to directing its resources to reduce wildfire risk in areas deemed as “firesheds.” The USDA is investing $930 million across 45 million acres, but currently offering nothing to Wyoming.
According to the letter, in the past five years the state of Wyoming has numerous burns and had to ask for emergency help from FEMA’s Fire Management Assistance Grant program four times. Those extreme wildfires included the Roosevelt and Badger Creek fires, the RR316 fire and the Mulenmegafire.
“While we strongly and unequivocally support efforts to increase the proactive management of National Forests, we are deeply concerned with the continued exclusion of our great state of Wyoming from this strategy,” the letter to The Honorable Tom Vilsack of the USDA and The Honorable Randy Moore of the Forest Service said.
Wyoming has recently introduced a bill for the Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 2023 to allow an exemption for federal, state, local and tribal firefighting agencies to use fire retardant without a permit to combat wildfires.
