In 2020, the U.S. set a record as 57,000 wildfires burned over 10.3 million acres. From 2015 to 2020, the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture spent $14.1 billion of taxpayer money on fire suppression alone. That staggering figure does not include cleanup costs or the rebuilding efforts for families who lost everything they owned. Our District has already experienced five large wildfires this year, but wildfires do not have to be the norm that we accept.
While there are many causes that lead to these large wildfires, like decades of forest mismanagement, insect infestations that kill healthy trees, and the severe drought across the West, many forests are full of dry fuels because of bad policy and regulations from the federal government.
Unfortunately, the current wildfire crisis is not receiving enough attention in Congress, and Democrat politicians have no real intention of tackling the issue. They have their talking points, and they stick to them while the literal costs of wildfires and the devastation to our communities keep piling up.
In 2020 Colorado suffered the worst fire season on record. Last year we had three of the largest recorded wildfires in state history. The Pine Gulch Fire burned close to 140,000 acres in my district in Mesa and Garfield counties, and the Cameron Peak Fire was the largest wildfire in Colorado history, burning more than 208,000 acres and more than 460 structures to the tune of $6 million in property losses. In 2012, the Waldo Canyon Fire killed two people and destroyed more than 32,000 homes. In 2018, the Camp Fire in California killed more than 80 people.
This devastation and loss of life is tragic. But the sad thing is, career politicians in the Swamp have done little to nothing to try and fix these problems and instead pander to extremist environmentalists that engage in ecoterrorism like tree spiking.
I listened to the people in my district, and I talked to experts on the ground to develop a comprehensive solution called the Active Forest Management, Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act that addresses several of these issues. My bill is fully paid for and will generate billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury. This legislation requires the Forest Service to harvest a minimum of 6 billion board feet per year, establishes the Western Bark Beetle Epidemic Fund to remove dead and dying bark beetle trees, and it contains important litigation reforms that remove incentives for extremist groups to file frivolous lawsuits that slow down forest management. My legislation adopts a forward-thinking, active management strategy that combats catastrophic wildfires before they get started. We can reduce the size and severity of these wildfires through active forest management.
