WY US Representative Harriet Hageman Reacts To State Being Left Out Of US Wildfire Prevention Plan

Wyoming gets its share of wildland fires each year, and the state’s US Congressional Delegation isn’t happy that some federal agencies did not include the Cowboy State in plans to confront the wildfire crisis in the west.

Last week, US Senators John Senators John Barasso and Cynthis Lummis, along with Representative Harriet Hagemen, sent a letter to US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore criticizing their agencies for failing to protect Wyoming from the increased threat of catastrophic wildfire.

The delegation noted how Wyoming was omitted from the USDA and Forest Service’s 10-year strategy to combat wildfires across the American West, and admonished the agencies for excluding Wyoming membership from the recently formed, Congressionally-mandated wildfire commission.

The delegation mentioned that according to recent Forest Service estimates, more than 4-million acres in Wyoming are at either ‘high’ or ‘very high’ risk to catastrophic wildfire.

Hageman says omitting the Cowboy State is unacceptable.

“We need to make sure we are included in that. Obviously with our National Forest and the magnitude of Federal lands we have, 48% of our surface this day is owned by the Federal Government and Wyoming should not be left out of the programs that are going to help us to be able to protect those natural resources.”

In the recent plan that was devised by the USDA and USFS, 11 areas were selected to be worked on in the Wildfire Crisis Strategy.

Three were in California, two in Utah, one each in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho and Arizona, one on the California/Nevada border and another on the border of California and Oregon.

Click here to see the 10-year strategy proposed by the USDA and the Forest Service