California fire funds sent from north to south
Sacramento Bee
Published Thursday, September 10, 2003
By Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writer
In a little-noticed aspect of its "Healthy Forests" initiative, the Bush administration has been transferring funds for fire prevention from Northern California forests to Southern California, largely to protect resort communities such as Lake Arrowhead and Idyllwild.
So far this year, the U.S. Forest Service has shifted about $4.5 million to Southern California from 11 Northern California national forests, according to agency figures provided to The Bee.
Administration officials say there is nothing irregular about the transfers. Northern California is experiencing a relatively mild fire season, whereas several hundred thousand acres in the San Bernardino National Forest are threatened by drought, beetle infestation and wildfires, said Mark Rey, an undersecretary at the Department of Agriculture.
Even so, the transfers are coming under fire from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who helped secure some of the Northern California funds, and environmental groups who say the administration is playing a shell game.
Last month, they say, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman visited Lake Arrowhead. During the visit, she touted Bush's controversial "Healthy Forests" initiative, linking it to the transferred money without disclosing where the funds were coming from.
"This is like robbing Peter to pay Paul," said Jay Watson, regional director of the Wilderness Society. "I have no problem with helping the San Bernardino Forest, but to take it from other forests and make it seem like it is Healthy Forests ... that is really misleading."
The Healthy Forests initiative would let the Forest Service speed the burning of underbrush and the thinning, including logging, of trees to reduce fire risk.
At issue are federal funds for "fuels reduction" -- projects to thin out brush, small trees and bug-infested stands that can cause normal fires to explode. Every year, the 17 national forests in California split about $46 million in fuels-reduction funds. Many forest supervisors say that is a fraction of what they need.
Early this year, state and federal officials learned that a combination of drought and tree-killing beetles was creating an emergency near Lake Arrowhead and other communities.
Forest Service officials responded with about $7.2 million in funding. Meanwhile, local officials urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency to recommend designating the San Bernardino forest as a national disaster area, which, with a declaration from Bush, would make the area eligible for FEMA funds.
FEMA, however, balked at that making the recommendation, putting more pressure on the Forest Service. Worried about a deadly wildfire, Regional Forester Jack Blackwell was forced to draw millions from other fuels-reduction projects statewide, said Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes.
According to a spreadsheet provided by the Forest Service, nearly $2 million is coming from the Plumas and Lassen forests, home of a forestry project -- the Quincy Library Group -- supported by Feinstein, D-San Francisco, and U.S. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Marysville.
Another $534,000 is coming from the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Feinstein was surprised to hear about the source of the San Bernardino money.
"It appears that most of the money came from projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin and in the Quincy Library Group area, which are also high-priority areas for reducing fire risks," Feinstein said in a statement. "While it is critical that we reduce the threat of catastrophic fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, the Forest Service needs to ensure that funds are available for these other priority projects as well."
Forest Service officials provided conflicting responses this week on the likely impact on Northern California.
Initially, they said the transfers will have little effect, since environmental groups had litigated or blocked many of the fuels-reduction projects, putting implementation in doubt.
Asked to specify those projects, Mathes later corrected himself and said litigation wasn't a factor. He then acknowledged the transfers "will put behind some of the fuels-reduction projects in the national forests."
Initially, Forest Service officials proposed transferring several hundred thousand dollars from the Stanislaus National Forest. But that would have halted a thinning project supported by timber companies and U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, and the money was restored.
Overall, the southward shift of funds is a smart tradeoff, said Rey and others. The Forest Service estimates that 350,000 acres in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains have dead or dying trees.
About 100,000 people live in the area, and thousands could be trapped in a fire because of inadequate evacuation routes.
According to U.S. census data, the median income of the Lake Arrowhead area is 30 percent higher than the state as a whole. Federal officials, however, say many residents are retirees on fixed incomes and can't afford to fireproof their homes.
"Some of these trees are huge, and they are growing right through people's decks," said Mathes. "So you have to climb them and cut them down in sections, and it can get expensive."
Craig Thomas, leader of the Sierra Nevada Protection Campaign, said he objects to the "cynical" way funding was handled.
Last month, Veneman scheduled a visit to Lake Arrowhead to meet with residents and U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands. Subsequently, Forest Service officials arranged it so Veneman could also announce transfer of the extra money for fuels reduction. During the visit, Veneman said the money would "support the President's Healthy Forests Initiative to address the growing decline in our national forests," according to a press release.
The announcement outraged environmentalists, who were further angered to learn that most of the money came from Northern California -- a fact not mentioned in Veneman's news release.
Heidi Valetkevitch, a Forest Service spokeswoman who helped write the release, said there was no attempt to deceive.
Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist and Veneman's top forestry adviser, said environmentalists are trying to politicize a routine transfer of funds.
"None of the people sneering about this live in the San Bernadino region," he said.
Copyright © The Sacramento Bee