The major topics of week 2 that stand out are the overwhelming cost increase of wildfires and the different agencies or organizations that are in place for support. Over the years these types of agencies have a total new look and ability to assist. There has been many times where suppression costs are more than available funds meaning the US forest service and department of the interior must transfer funds from other departments to lend a hand. When there are not sufficient funds it effects other agencies greatly causing them to supply funds inn times of need. There must be some type other approaches to paying for wildfires. The author of US GAO states, The forest service and interior had transferred almost $3 billion from other programs causing them to suffer as well. Congress can reimburse these companies however, this comes at the cost of tax payers and other supporting companies. There once was a single reforestation fund to draw funds from but now the more contributors the better. The overall costs of woodland fire are closely but not copley related to the amount of acreage burned. It really depends on the location being burnt at the time and the variability of fire intensity or behavior. In modern times, the costs of woodland firefighting is clearly going to continue to increase. Even when wildfires decrease, with he increasing populations and woodland urban interfaces can cause costs to skyrocket. As stated in, “Getting burned: A taxpayers guide to wildfire suppression costs,” in the 2000’s the US has already spent over $1.4 billion in suppression relief with the number to continuing to climb. To put that into perspective in the 1970’s we only spent $420 million.
