A new funding of $490 million to combat wildfire risk in the western United States and also to tackle the growing threat of devastating blazes due to climate change has been announced by the Biden-led administration on Thursday.
Authorized by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, the funding is coming after 2022 which saw huge wildfires in North and South America, Europe, Australia and parts of Asia that scientists say are being driven by warmer, drier weather.
“It is no longer a matter of if a wildfire will threaten many western communities in these landscapes, it is a matter of when. The need to invest more and to move quickly is apparent. This is a crisis and President Biden is treating it as one,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack.
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He said the money would be used mainly to perform prescribed burns and remove dead wood and vegetation in forests in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
In the first big tranche of funding last year, the US government approved $440 million from the Infrastructure Act of 2021 after it unveiled a 10-year plan to treat and maintain millions of additional acres (hectares) of forests in the western United States to reduce the severity of seasonal blazes.
The U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the Department of Agriculture, has historically treated up to 2 million acres (800,000 hectares) in the western United States annually.
Wildfires burned more than 7.5 million acres in the United States in 2022, according to U.S. government statistics, causing billions of dollars in damage.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
