During last week’s budget hearing with the U.S. Forest Service, Sen. Katie Britt questioned Forest Service Chief Randy Moore on cuts to a program she considers vital to fighting wildfires.
Britt (R-Montgomery) is a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.
“The Administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget for the Forest Service includes $60 million to install charging equipment for electric vehicles on public lands, which is clear that the Green New Deal has certainly made its way into the Forest Service budget,” said Britt. However, that very same budget cuts $3 million from Landscape Scale Restoration grant funding.
“I believe this funding obviously has supported efforts to reduced wild fire risk, it has improved forest conditions and also mitigated disease and blight conditions that are facing our nation’s forests.”
Britt questioned Moore on the effectiveness of drones to prevent and fight wild fires.
“In Alabama, we have found these funds to be useful to expand the use of drones and train drone pilots to combat and prepare for forest fires,” she said. “In your experience, how effective have we been in using drones to track the spread of forest fires, to use that information to assist us as we fight forest fires and their efforts in the future?”
Moore responded.
“The Forest Service has just recently gotten into the use of drones,” he said. “We know that there’s always a safety risk when we use helicopters to look at increasing the amount of prescribed burning we’re doing. And so, one of the alternatives to mitigate that safety issue is to look at drones to do prescribed burning.
“So, we’re moving into that arena in a really rapid way. And we have already started licensing and certifying our lot of our employees to operate the drones. And so, we’re headed in that direction. And we’re going as quick as we possibly can.”
The 2024 budget proposal would slash $3 million year over year in Landscape Scale Restoration. The annual budget proposal plays a large role in efforts to reduce the risk of wild fires, improve forest conditions, and mitigate disease and blight conditions in forests throughout the country.
Alabama has 23 million acres of forest, the third most in the US.
The forest industry in the state produces about $27.7 billion annually and contributes around 111,000 jobs to Alabama.
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.
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