Flying Blind: Federal Misuse of Airtankers Adds to Skyrocketing Fire Suppression Costs Accountability and Reform Needed

Wildfire suppression expenditures have averaged over $1 billion per year since 2000, but with a 71 percent increase in spending in the last five years the annual average is now $2.9 billion.. Firefighting now accounts for 61 percent of the Forest Service’s total discretionary budget.8 While suppression cost-containment has been a stated goal within the agency and a keen interest among Members of Congress for the last 15 years, there are no legal or policy mandates requiring Forest Service line officers or incident commanders to limit costs, and they have tremendous discretion in suppression expenditures.11 Recent research challenging the costs and effectiveness of different suppression strategies, tactics, and resources all beg the question—what are taxpayers getting from the billions of dollars spent fighting fires?