U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse speaks with Summit County Sheriff Jamie Fitzsimmons at the Summit County Emergency Operations Center in Frisco on April 24, 2024.
Ryan Spencer/Summit Daily News
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse on Tuesday announced a series of bipartisan bills aimed at improving how federal and state agencies respond to wildfires.
The bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives and is co-led by Neguse and other Democratic and Republican House members.
This is in response to a 350-page report released last year by the Federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, which called for more cross-jurisdictional approaches to wildfire preparedness, as well as reforms to current strategies. .
“The U.S. wildfire crisis is urgent, severe, and widespread,” the report’s executive summary reads. “Among the core themes of the commission’s recommendations are calls for increased coordination, interoperability, cooperation and, in some cases, simplification within wildfire systems.”
The legislation introduced this week is based on the report’s recommendations and consists of three bills:
The Transboundary Wildfire Solution would require research to identify gaps in federal programs and regulations that impede wildfire mitigation across federal and non-federal jurisdictions, and recommend ways to improve current practices . The Wildfire Adjustment Act establishes an advisory committee. Collaboration with members of the various federal, state, local, tribal, and non-federal entities responsible for coordinating and implementing federal wildfire research. every four years, requiring a comprehensive review of the situation in the world, outlining environmental changes, assessing wildfire management challenges, and assessing the intersection of wildfire and public health. All of this is intended to provide information that will help you develop a long-term strategy.
In a Sept. 24 news release, Neguse said these efforts “ultimately invest in wildfire science and community-wide resilience, reducing the threat of future disasters.” .
The proposal received a flurry of support from national and local emergency response and environmental groups, including several based in Colorado’s High Country.
These include Eagle County Wildfire Cooperative, Grand County Wildfire Council, Routt County Wildfire Council, and Summit Fire & EMS.
“Further coordination between agencies is critical to completing wildfire mitigation and refueling operations at a faster pace than is currently achievable,” Grand County Wildfire Council Executive Director Jessica Rahn said in a statement. said. “The best success stories in our state and across the nation in saving homes and communities during wildfires are supported by science, and we support evaluation processes that strengthen wildfire preparedness and response. ”
Nationally, the area of land burned by wildfires is expected to be larger than usual in 2024, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center. As of Wednesday, September 25, more than 38,000 fires had burned more than 7.3 million acres this year. Year-to-date, the 10-year average burned area is just under 6 million acres.
Some of the largest wildfires in Colorado this year include the Alexander Fire in Larimer County (9,668 acres), the Spruce Creek Fire in Montezuma County (5,699 acres), and the Stone Canyon Fire in Boulder County (1,553 acres). Reported. Colorado Sun wildfire tracker.
Democratic California Rep. Josh Harder, co-leader of Neguse’s legislative package, defended the bill’s bipartisan support in a statement. California Republican Young Kim and New York Republican Mark Molinaro are the other major sponsors of the package.
“This is not a partisan political issue. Fires and their toxic smoke affect everyone,” Harder said. “Our families and communities are counting on us to accomplish this.”
