We stay in communities surrounded by forests — they outline our landscapes, our livelihoods and our security. We have now witnessed each the devastation of maximum wildfires, and the unimaginable progress made in wildfire prevention and forest well being. This legislative session, we urge our elected representatives to uphold their promise and allocate $125 million within the biennial funds to maintain this very important work.
In 2021, Washington passed House Bill 1168, committing $500 million over eight years in wildfire response, forest well being and group resilience. This historic funding has already reworked landscapes and lives, enabling forest thinning, managed burning, workforce coaching and higher safety of properties — steps that scale back catastrophic wildfire threat whereas revitalizing forest ecosystems.
We’re seeing this funding in motion with huge modifications on Cle Elum Ridge that surrounds the communities of Cle Elum, Roslyn and Ronald. The 2017 Jolly Mountain Fireplace, ignited by lightning, smoldered for weeks in distant terrain earlier than erupting into a large blaze that pressured lots of to evacuate and turned our sky blood-red. It was a terrifying reminder that our overgrown forests have been primed for catastrophe.
In response, the group rallied. We established the Kittitas Fireplace Tailored Communities Coalition, which works throughout property ownerships to speed up the tempo and scale of restoration and wildfire mitigation. The Nature Conservancy has thinned almost 2,000 acres of forest, reintroduced prescribed hearth and created defensible areas that make our cities safer. We have now skilled a brand new technology of employees in prescribed burning — a necessary device for restoring hearth’s pure function in ecosystems. This work wouldn’t have been potential with out help from HB1168, and these investments imply that when the following hearth comes, we can have a combating likelihood.
An analogous story unfolds in Klickitat County, the place more and more extreme wildfires have burned on the slopes of Mount Adams, creeping nearer to the communities of Trout Lake and Glenwood. The fires sparked conversations about forest well being and the way we as communities can head off catastrophe.
With HB 1168 funding, we’ve got constructed a collaborative, community-based method to fireplace resilience. We have now constructed an area workforce, geared up with the abilities and instruments — from chain saws to drip torches — to deal with the unnaturally dense forest undergrowth that might channel the following huge hearth into our neighborhoods. With chippers, saws and prescribed hearth, we’ve handled 1000’s of acres of forests. This isn’t simply hearth prevention — it’s financial revitalization. By creating forestry jobs and increasing native companies that help restoration, we’re bringing new vitality to rural economies lengthy affected by the timber trade’s decline.
The ability of HB 1168 lies not simply in what it pays for however in what it unlocks. The state’s funding has leveraged further federal and native grants, permitting us to pool our assets to maximise impression. There may be inspiring work taking place in communities like ours throughout the state due to this funding, and we can’t afford to lose momentum particularly as federal investments wane.
Stopping wildfires is fiscally accountable. Each greenback spent on proactive forest administration saves a number of {dollars} in averted firefighting prices and catastrophe restoration. Catastrophic wildfires drain state assets, displace households, and harm air and water high quality. Investing in resilience now reduces the probability of billion-dollar disasters sooner or later.
Because the devastating Los Angeles fires remind us, continued funding at scale is important. Over 2.8 million acres of Washington forest want restoration. We urge lawmakers to resume this important $125 million dedication for the 2025-27 biennium. Our forests, communities and future depend upon it.
