As another endless and virulent fire season takes a breather, the U.S. Forest Service is still spending inordinate amounts of money suppressing remote wild land fires, which in many cases are better allowed to burn themselves out. According to Timothy Ingalsbee, Executive Director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE),“The endless and escalating ‘war’ on wildfire makes no distinctions between rural communities and remote wildlands. While homes are getting burned from lack of suppression resources in the frontcountry, taxpayers are getting burned from firefighting boondoggles in the backcountry.”
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Tim Ingalsbee about the need to become more strategic and selective in our use of expensive suppression resources, making community protection our highest priority, and seeing the futility of wasting taxpayer dollars on backcountry firefighting actions whose main justification is to look good on the nightly news.
Timothy Ingalsbee is the Executive Director of FIREFIGHTERS UNITED FOR SAFETY, ETHICS, and ECOLOGY (FUSEE), a national nonprofit organization founded in 2004 that conducts public education and policy advocacy to promote safe, ethical, ecological re management.
- KBOO