It's easy to put wildfires out of your mind when winter is in full swing and hot smoky air seems far away. But wildfire season will come again and at the Wa Chapter of BHA, we are still focused on making our state resilient to mega-fires. We would like to thank our Commissioner of Public Lands, Hilary Franz, for her leadership and shared interest in prioritizing wildfires and forest health with HB 1168, the Wildfire and Forest Health Funding bill. However, as we learned in our Embers & Ecology series last summer, some forest treatments are better than others when it comes to fuels reduction and habitat improvement.
As is, the Forest Health Strategic Plan that would be funded by HB1168 needs much more prescribed burning. We have urged lawmakers and the DNR to do so in our letter to lawmakers and Commissioner Franz.