Catastrophic Wildfire Legislation Clears Washington Senate

Legislation that looks to prevent catastrophic wildfires in Washington cleared the state Senate by a unanimous vote late last week. House Bill 1168, sponsored by Republican Joel Kretz and Democrat Larry Springer, provides $125 million every two years to boost wildfire response, accelerate forest restoration and support community resilience. Representative Tom Dent said this legislation will allow the state to be more aggressive when it comes to forest health and addressing the current problem in thousands of acres of forest land in Washington.

Dent acknowledged while it is getting dryer and warmer, that’s not the cause of major wildfires across the state. He said the problem is excessive fuel.

“A catastrophic wildfire is excessive fuel, oxygen and an ignition source, and that’s what happens.  And when you have a catastrophic wildfire because of the excess fuel that’s when we do the real damage to the forest.  A normal wildfire will go through, will take out some trees, not them all, and usually clean the forest up, in a healthy forest.  But our forests aren’t healthy and that’s why we have the catastrophic wildfires that are very difficult to contain.”

HB 1168 comes on the heels of a historically destructive 2020 fire season in Washington, during which over 800,000 acres burned in more than 1,600 fires and nearly 300 homes were destroyed. The legislation returns to the House for lawmakers to consider changes made in the Senate.

“Washington is on the brink of breaking the cycle of inaction that has created our wildfire crisis,” said Commissioner Franz, who leads the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, including its state wildfire fighting force. “With this historic funding, we can make the transformative investments in wildfire response and forest health that we need to change the trajectory we are on. We are one step closer to protecting our communities, our forests and the air we breathe.”

“Lawmakers have agreed that Washington taxpayers can’t afford to keep losing $150 million each year to out-of-control wildfires. And our state also can’t afford to keep losing jobs, natural resources and even entire towns to this crisis,” Franz continued. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to get this bill over the finish line and signed into law.”

The state’s trajectory for wildfire severity has worsened in recent years, climbing from 293,000 acres burned in 2016 to 438,000 in 2018 to over 812,000 acres burned in 2020.

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