Schrier Talks Wildfire After Meeting with Forest Service Chief

8th District Representative Kim Schrier recently spoke with Forest Service Chief Randy Moore during an Agriculture Committee hearing on wildfire.

Schrier says proper forest management is needed after 100 years of putting out every fire as quickly as possible has allowed for much more undergrowth on the forest floor. That undergrowth is one of the primary reasons for the larger and more intense wildfires of recent memory.

"If you're going to thin the forest, you're going to have an awful lot of wood and other debris." Schrier said, "So we need saw mills, and we need a lot of infrastructure to do it."

Schrier and Moore will meet in the near future to talk about creating a small diameter mill in Central Washington, which would process thinned wood from the forest. They claim it would also improve revenues, create family-wage jobs, and reduce housing prices in the area.

A recent report from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources identified 3 million acres of forest lands in the state in need of restoration.

Forest treatment has also been hampered by staffing and capacity issues at the Forest Service. Moore is reportedly hopeful that the staffing problems can be mitigated by an increase in funding from the upcoming legislation.