(wild)Firefighting costs soar

[phantom power]

As wildfire seasons have grown lengthier from year to year, the cost of fighting off the threat has skyrocketed -- and the funding situation is becoming dire.

WASHINGTON -- The Forest Service has struggled for years to pay for fighting fires that last year alone scorched almost 10 million acres. As fire seasons grow longer and the blazes more intense in forests stressed by global warming, the agency's funding woes mount.

In fact, the Forest Service has already spent roughly $900 million this year, almost 75 percent of its fire-suppression budget, and the season is just nearing its peak.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/619065.html

[ben_meyers]

1. It's a man made problem

FTA

"Rey said one answer to the funding problem may be to reduce the amount of hazardous fuel, dried brush, dead trees and other woody debris in the forests. Since 2001, federal land agencies have cleaned 21 million acres, or an area larger than the state of Ohio."

That's what the fires used to do. Now we intervene and allow the forests to build up unnatural amounts of fuel. Wild fires aren't a "problem", they're as natural as the very forests themselves.

Let them burn! That's the way it has always been.

[XemaSab]

2. Easy for you to say

We haven't seen the sun in over a MONTH here.

I hope they can get the fires out, and the sooner the better.

'Cause my ass is getting damn fat hiding in the house all day. x(