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Wildfire Preparation Amendment Rejected in Senate

by KREX News Room
by Cori Coffin

Story Created: Dec 28, 2012 at 11:51 PM MDT

Story Updated: Dec 29, 2012 at 2:37 PM MDT

WASHINGTON - On Friday, the U.S. Senate rejected an Amendment that would have fully funded the U.S. Forest Service's Wildland Fire Management Fund in preparation for 2013's wildfire season.

Senator Mark Udall, D-CO, introduced the amendment. He said experts predict that next year's fire season could be more severe than 2012's, which produced the two most destructive blazes in Colorado history: the High Park and Waldo Canyon fires.

The amendment would have restored $653 million to the management account for wildfire preparedness, suppression, hazardous fuels reduction, research and development and state fire assistance.

It would have also increased the budget request for the Wildland Fire Management fund to the projected median cost of the 2013 wildfire season, $1.584 billion.

Udall said in a press release Friday that while he understands the budgetary restraints the nation is under, the amendment would save taxpayers money, lives and property in the long-run.

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Floyd said on Saturday, Dec 29 at 6:44 AM

Before there were "environmentalists", we didn't have the wildfires there are today. Simple fire breaks did more to prevent the spread of wildfires than anything the "environmentalists" have ever done. All they can do is cry about all the smoke in the air and tell us they can prevent global warming if we give them lots of money. They already have plenty of money to burn, maybe that's what is causing the fires, they're burning money.

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