Getting Burned: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Wildfire Suppression Costs

White Paper
Written By Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D.

Wildfire suppression costs are soaring to over one billion tax dollars per year. This is causing a fiscal crisis in the Forest Service which has exceeded its suppression budget almost every year for the last 20 years. The agency now spends nearly half of its total appropriated budget on firefighting, and has been forced to transfer billions of dollars away from several non-fire land management programs to pay for suppression. Recent legislative changes to suppression funding (e.g. the FLAME fund) may provide better accounting for suppression costs, but do not impose firm budgetary limits on suppression spending, nor absolutely prevent continued transfers of funds from other management programs to pay for firefighting.

Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D.

Timothy is the Executive Director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics & Ecology (FUSEE). He started his fire career as a wildland firefighter for both the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, and is now a certified senior wildland fire ecologist. He earned his Ph.D. in environmental sociology with a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from the University of Oregon where he is also an adjunct Instructor and Faculty Research Associate. He was named Oregon's Conservationist of the Year in 1993. 

Previous

Wildland Fire Use
Next

A Reporter’s Guide to Wildland Fire