Plumas Board of Supervisors offers a final decision to support a wildfire suppression bill after three meetings of discussions.
The House of Representatives bill, 6903, authored by Congressman Tom McClintock and Doug LaMalfa, says the Forest Service will answer wildfire starts “to the maximum extent practicable” by using “all available resources to carry out wildfire suppression to extinguish wildfires detected on National Forest System lands no later than 24 hours after a wildfire is detected.”
A noted concern of the supervisors is that the bill takes away local input on managing a fire. In a letter that ultimately supports the bill, the Plumas supervisors write “Once a wildfire management tool is removed from the hands of local, state and federal decision-makers that are authorized to respond to wildfire …greater obstacles are faced which further limit the opportunities for innovative and collaborative solutions.”
Additionally, the Plumas Fire safe council argues that “the bill seeks to further enmesh policies that have contributed to the current fuels crisis.”
With these considerations, the board approved a letter to support the intent of the bill, yet expresses that the objective to extinguish wildfires on forest lands within 24 hours after detection removes the opportunity to assess, and take the appropriate action, which may end up being suppression but also could utilize fire treatment practices to remove surface fuel loads.
The letter was approved during a September 20th meeting of the board.
