The U.S. Forest Service needs to hire more firefighters and reconfigure how it mitigates the risk of wildfires that are growing more intense, the head of the agency told lawmakers Wednesday.
This year “has been devastating in not only the size and frequency of large wildfires but also in terms of sustained activity,” U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore testified at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry.
Moore blamed the severity of recent fire seasons on extreme drought, a warming climate and a century of “overly aggressive suppression policies” that have made forests ripe for more destructive fires.
About 46,000 fires have burned nearly 6 million acres across the West this year, destroying 4,500 structures and killing four federal firefighters, Moore said.
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