Parts of the West are engulfed by wildfire every year, mostly on U.S. Forest Service land. The Forest Service has two techniques to prevent wildfires: mechanical treatments (usually thinning the forest) and prescribed burns (setting controlled fires to clear brush and shrubs). But environmental reviews are causing drastic delays before the process can even start.
A new report by Eric Edwards and Sara Sutherland from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) reveals:
- Reviews under NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) have delayed mechanical treatment by an average of 3.6 years—that’s 3.6 years before the project can even be started.
- Prescribed burns are delayed an average of 4.7 years .
- Larger projects require even more review—a full-blown environmental impact statement (EIS). On average, review of these mechanical treatments delays them by 5.3 years, and review of these prescribed burns, 7.2 years.
The authors write: “Given the time it takes to conduct environmental reviews and implement fuel treatments, it is unlikely that the Forest Service will be able to achieve its goal of treating an additional 20 million acres over the next 10 years.”
Image of fire above is by Matthias Fischer from Pixabay. Other photos courtesy of PERC.