Washington’s Department of Natural Resources on Monday released an updated version of its statewide forest action plan. The plan is designed to help reduce the risk of wildfire over time and help the state adjust its forest management strategies to a changing climate.
Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz says the plan is required by the Forest Service. It is a companion to a state plan written a few years ago that focused on forests in eastern and central Washington. She says the state and its public and private partners have already begun implementing that.
“First, actually treating 220,000 acres. In addition to that, securing funding from the legislature to be able to go to that work. We obviously need more significant funding to be even more effective and we need to be working even more closely with our federal partners that have the largest amount of landscape that is forested and is at risk of wildfires," Franz said.
Franz says, if re-elected, she will go to the legislature next year with a proposal to create a dedicated fund for wildfire prevention and suppression.
She says the new plan also recognizes the changes happening in west side forests. She says more land west of the Cascade crest, even in the Olympic rain forests, has burned over the last several years. And many fires are coming earlier in the year, lengthening the wildfire season so that it covers a majority of the year.
