Wildfire

It would be called the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, according to budget documents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior. The agency would consolidate the wildland fire programs of the USDA and Interior within the latter.

Tom Schultz, the head of the U.S. Forest Service, is calling for wildfires to be extinguished “as swiftly as possible this season.” But aggressive suppression policies are widely believed to be one of the key culprits in the current wildfire crisis.

In recent years, there have been a number of fast-moving, destructive wildfires in which residents had little or no warning to evacuate. Federal officials have new recommendations for how communities should prepare for such disasters.

The percentage of adults in the West who say they’ve been personally affected by an extreme weather event, including wildfires and high heat, jumped 13% in the last two years.

The federal wildland firefighting force is currently split between five land management agencies – the Forest Service (under the U.S. Department of Agriculture), the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (under the Department of the Interior).

An obscure federal agency recently released what it calls the “most comprehensive data on homeowners insurance in history.” And the picture it paints for the Mountain West is a concerning one.

While California has a uniquely unstable insurance market, many of the issues there are increasingly being seen across the West. The state’s previous insurance commissioner says there are things other states can do to stave off more serious problems.

“What played out in L.A. could easily occur in other communities, other cities across the West and even outside the West,” said Kimiko Barrett, the senior wildfire researcher at Montana-based Headwaters Economics.

Marshall Together, a grassroots nonprofit created by survivors of the devastating Colorado wildfire, are sharing advice and raising funds to assist those affected by the fires in L.A.

Not every state has wildfire-specific building codes, but those that do typically map out fire risk for different communities and specify the kinds of materials and vegetation allowed in developments.