13 states to share $10 mil. to cut wildfire risks
By Keith Ridler, AP
BOISE, Idaho — Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has announced $10 million for land restoration projects in 13 states in a strategy to reduce catastrophic wildfires.
Jewell said June 12 that making land more resilient to fire is essential for vulnerable species and for healthy rangelands, forests and watersheds.
Eight of the states are in the West, with projects in conifer forests and sagebrush rangelands, where wildfires have been especially destructive in the last decade. Sagebrush is also habitat for sage grouse, an imperiled bird under consideration for federal protections.
Georgia, Florida, Virginia and North and South Carolina also are receiving money to help restore longleaf pine forests, home to the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
The projects are part of a new Interior Department program uniting federal agencies, tribes, states and groups to create fire-resilient landscapes.
I’m rather underwhelmed.
“Jewell said June 12 that making land more resilient to fire is essential for vulnerable species and for healthy rangelands, forests and watersheds.”
Just how EXACTLY do you plan to do this?? Have you consulted Mother Nature yet? Good luck with yet another waste of tax payer money. In case you never took Fires 101, they are actually good for the land. Next you’ll want to ban lightening, after all it starts lots of healthy wildfires.