The U.S. Forest Service says suppressing wildfires consumes a share of its budget three times larger than it did 20 years ago, with Alaska's 2015 fires larger than all other states' combined.
Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, speaking before the House Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee Thursday, told lawmakers that the service will allocate more than half its budget to wildfire suppression -- up from 16 percent in 1995.
"Left unchecked, the share of the budget devoted to fire in 2025 could exceed 67 percent," Tidwell said, according to a summary of his remarks provided by the service. "We are at a critical moment in the history of the Forest Service. Urgent action is needed in order to ensure that the Forest Service does not become further hindered by the continually increasing percentage of our budget that is dedicated to wildfire suppression activities."
From Jan. 1 through Sept. 29 this year, the National Interagency Fire Center reported 9,084,655 acres burned in wildfires across the U.S. More than half of that total -- some 5.08 million acres -- burned in Alaska, during what officials called the state's second-worst wildfire season ever.
At least $8 million was spent to fight the nearly 8,000-acre Sockeye Fire north of Willow, which destroyed 55 structures and led to criminal charges against two people -- 59-year-old Greg L. Imig and 42-year-old Amy K. DeWitt -- in connection with its June 14 ignition.
Days later, the Card Street Fire near Kenai rapidly grew to 9,000 acres, engulfing parts of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Both blazes were declared disasters by Gov. Bill Walker, after the costs of fighting the Card Street Fire exceeded $1.5 million in just three days.
In addition to the rising costs of fighting wildfires, Tidwell cited "fire transfer" -- the practice of taking Forest Service funds from other programs, such as restoration, watershed and recreation -- when funds provided by Congress for wildfire suppression were depleted. According to Tidwell, this fiscal year's fire transfer was a record $700 million.
"The cost of fighting wildfires this season reached a record high, exceeding $1.7 billion," Forest Service officials wrote. "During the 2015 fire season, the Forest Service spent 24 days with all available ground and air assets committed to priority work managing more than 50,000 wildfires across the nation."
In the face of the budget crisis, Tidwell said the Forest Service has been unable to maintain three-quarters of the trails it oversees to proper standards for lack of funds. He called upon Congress to help fund the service's fire-management programs, which prepare existing forests and grasslands for fires and help rehabilitate burned areas, as a cost-effective alternative to fighting fires.
Thirteen firefighters have died across the U.S. during this year's wildfire season, none of them in Alaska.