Save forests and support PREPARE

Some people are going to scoff at the suggestion that climate change - a watered-down term for global warming - is rendering our forests increasingly susceptible to catastrophic burns.

But we think Republican Sen. Mike Crapo is correct in his conclusion: Regardless of the long-term forces in play, work must be done right now to mitigate the devastation of these burns and the untenable expense that goes along with fighting them.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, fire seasons now are 78 days longer than they were in the 1970s. Since 2000, 10 states have had their largest fires on record. Bigger and longer burns are forecast.

Meantime, because people love to live near forests, that's where increasing development has taken place - which raises not just the stakes to property and lives, but the cost of trying to preserve an estimated 46 million homes in potential wildfires' paths.

The U.S. Forest Service is on an unsustainable track. For the first time in its 110-year history, the agency charged with managing 190 million acres of public forests and grasslands is now spending more than half its entire budget on wildfire suppression. It's projecting that within a decade, it will spend more than two-thirds of its budget fighting fires.

Whether you're looking at the problem through the eyes of a Republican, a Democrat, a backwoods camper or an award-winning scientist, we think it's clear that prevention is wiser and cheaper than reaction. That's why we support Sen. Crapo and Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in their reintroduction of a bill to pay for specific mitigation efforts that would help reduce the size and scope of fires - and prevent some of them from occurring at all.

The bill is a mouthful called the Prepare, Ready, Equip, and Prevent Areas at-Risk of Emergency (PREPARE) Wildfires Act. The act would authorize $20 million to $30 million per year in federal funds for a five-year pilot program focused on minimizing the devastation of wildfires. If there's a political catch that will concern some Idahoans, it's that the bill would require states and local governments to provide matching funds to leverage federal dollars. We hope any anti-fed sentiments will not get in the way of active steps to protect our great state from worse fire fates that clearly await.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that these federally funded mitigation programs have a tremendous return on investment for taxpayers, declaring that for every dollar spent on mitigation, citizens save more than $5 in future disaster losses.

Ecologically and economically, the PREPARE Wildfires Act deserves your support. Email Sen. Crapo your encouragement at http://www.crapo.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm or write him a letter via his Coeur d'Alene office, 610 Hubbard, Suite 209, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814.