WildfiresFlagstaff, Ariz. uses municipal bonds to fund wildfire mitigation measures
Wildfires are costing more to control and put down. In 2006, 2007, and 2012, more than nine million acres burned, roughly the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined. For years 2011, 2012, and 2013, fire departments nationwide spent $1.7 billion to suppress wildfires. Flagstaff, a northern Arizona city set in the middle of a national forest, has created a $10 million fund, supported by municipal bonds, to make the city less vulnerable to damage from large forest fires, floods, violent storms, and temperature extremes.
As the U.S. Forest Service’s funding for wildfire management dwindles, authorities in Flagstaff, a northern Arizona city set in the middle of a national forest, are taking responsibility for treating nearby federal land. Flagstaff is spending $10 million to thin 15,000 acres of forest to make the city less vulnerable to damage from large forest fires, floods, violent storms, and temperature extremes. The funds are supported by city bonds funded by a property tax hike approved in 2012. Firefighters have already begun to treat state-owned land, but will begin work on the Coconino National Forest — the biggest share of the effort, as soon as next March.
Wildfires are costing more to control and put down. Governing reports that in years 2006, 2007, and 2012, more than nine million acres burned, roughly the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined. For years 2011, 2012, and 2013, fire departments nationwide spent $1.7 billion to suppress wildfires.
“We could just continue to pound on our congressman and senators and the Forest Service” for more federal money to fund the treatment, said Paul Summerfelt, the Flagstaff fire department’s wildland fire management officer. “The end result of that is just a lot of yelling and screaming and not a lot gets done … There’s not enough money in the Treasury for the work that needs to be done.”
To gain public support for its efforts to fund forest management by treating woods and using control burns, the city launched a public awareness campaign to educate residents about the benefits. “When all of this began to emerge, there was a paradigm in the community that every tree was good, every fire was bad and we needed to save everything,” Summerfelt said. With help from local organizations, including researchers at the Northern Arizona University, city officials taught residents how treated areas can suppress a raging fire. “It goes from a crown fire with 150-foot flames above the crowns of the trees down to a ground fire, where it’s 3 or 4 feet off the ground and we can deal with it,” Summerfelt said. Often, residents near treated areas can return to their homes the evening after the fire is put out.
Since making the decision to self-fund forest treatment, Flagstaff has attracted roughly $1.6 million in grants toward the initiative. The Forest Service, a financial supporter of the efforts, is now interested in using the Flagstaff model as a way to leverage federal funds on other communities.
