Wildfire suppression costs top record $1,000 per acre

Associated Press

SPOKANE — The U.S. Forest Service has spent more per acre fighting fires this year than ever before.

Although actual spending has decreased about 40 percent since last year, the cost per acre has nearly tripled, to more than $1,300. It’s the first time the per-acre cost has topped $1,000, according to Forest Service figures.

"Firefighting costs have gone through the roof," said Jonathan Oppenheimer, a Taxpayers for Common Sense forest issues analyst. The watchdog group is critical of the spending. It and other groups say many fires that don’t threaten homes could be allowed to burn to improve forest health.

But fire experts said the extra spending this year probably helped prevent some massive, destructive blazes.

"We can invest thousands of dollars on a quarter-acre fire," said Stan Benes, the Forest Service acting deputy director of fire in Missoula, Mont. "That might prevent a million-dollar fire."

After fires last year burned more than 7 million acres, Congress approved $1.8 billion to prevent the same thing from happening again.

That money went to the Forest Service and other agencies to hire an additional 7,900 firefighters, buy more machinery and make better preparations.

Even though there was a drought in the Northwest, the number of fires started this year was slightly below the 10-year average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. The number of acres burned also is lower than average.

The Forest Service has fought fires on 519,000 acres so far, at a cost of $699 million. Last season, the Forest Service spent more than $1 billion to fight fires on 2.2 million acres.

Fire experts say wildfires are becoming increasingly complicated to fight because a growing number of people are building houses in the woods. Also, fire suppression has left forests thick with brush and small trees, conditions that lead to hotter, faster-growing fires.

Many environmental groups say forests need fires to become healthy again.