Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing Examines Efforts To Reduce Wi

Hackers started getting jobs doing security. Next well hear from federal and local officials on some of the technologies that can be used to reduce and prevent wildfires across the country. They testified at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing this month. This is just under two hours. Good morning. The committee will come to order. Were here today to take a look at wildfire, to examine our wildFire Management program, the collaboration that is required to reduce risks firefighters, to communities, and resources and some of the emerging technologies that are changing the way that fires are managed. We now well into the 2017 fire season. Certainly a very active one. My friend from montana, i think, is going to share some of what is happening in his state this morning, and i think it is appropriate to recognize the heroic acts of the man and women who fight these fires throughout the season, and to recognize the loss of the firefighter in montana. Senator . Madam chair, thank you. Ill talk about it in my harks but we lost a firefighter last night in montana. Our second fatality in two weeks in montana firefighters. Know our hearts and prayers are with the families, but, again, this speaks to the realities that we behaves our wildfire around the country that this is dangerous and unpredictable work, and our thoughts and prayers are with those who are serving. As of august 1st, nearly 39,000 fires have burned almost 5. 5 millionacres of land. For comparison sake, this is an area the size of the state of new hampshire. In alaska we have had low fire year this year. We have had more than 300 fires burning 630,000 acres. Its a lot of land but its below normal for us in alaska so were certainly not complaining. Two years ago, in 2015, over 5 million acres burned in alaska alone, and mr. Maisch, from the state of alaska, certainly knows and understands is a all too well. Nationally, 2015 is one of the worst seasons of record, stretching nearly all year and burning over 10 million acres in total. This committee has spent a lot of time, a lot of good work, working on legislation to address the consequences of wildfire. Well continue that work until we arrive at legislative solutions. We need a comprehensive solution that addresses both wildfire budgeting and Forest Management. We need to tackle both of those at once, because we know the wildfire problem is not just a budgeting problem. Its also a management problem. Last year, my Ranking Member, center cant yell and senator widen andrich and crapo, put a together a wildfire bugging response and Forest Management act and the proposal included a fiscally responsible fix to permanently end the destructive practice of fire borrowing. We required congress to provide resources to the agencies up front, enough to cover 100 of the annual cost of firefighters over the previous ten years while allowing for a limited cap adjustment when we experience truly catastrophic years. Our proposal took steps to address hurdle that stand in the way of mitigating wildfire risk and make their fores more healthy and resilient. We would have increased the use of technologies such as drones and gps trackers and fire reaction mapping and making needed investment in Community Wildfire protection plans and fire wise program. Our wildfire strategy needs to include all of these import piece the wildFire Management pozzing and we know other members on the committee have good ideas that need to be considered. While our hearing today is focused on oversight of programs and use of technology, our goal is a good bill that will fix these problems and so the president will be able to sign this into law. We up a little short in the last congress but fire is again continue to destroy our lands. Theres a lot more that we could do theres a lot more that we must do from budgeting to new technologies to better Management Practices to save them. Again, want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today and particularly extend my appreciation to chris maisch, alaskas state forrester. Ill concern to Ranking Member cantwell for your opening remarks. I. I wants to thank the men and women who fight wildfires throughout the country and our thought and prayers are with those in montana who lost lives and the firefighters continuing to battle blazes. These firefighters have been working tirelessly to save home, communes, people, and assure theyre always there to answer the call. Their diligent work has savedded men hundreds of residents already this year. The chair mentioned our efforts in the last congress to work diligently together in a bipartisan effort. I can assure all my colleague are here there was no stone urn turned no late night not visited by she, myself, our staff, the leadership in the United States senate to try to resolve the fire borrowing issue and make a down payment on what our fuel reduction strategies for the future. Unfortunately, we couldnt quite get there with our house colleagues so any of you who think you can help us get them to Pay Attention in a more serious way, we would be so grateful. We have come together on a bipartisan solution in the United States senate to end fire borrowing and to make investments for the future, and i hope i certainly hope that we can get the attention to reinvigorate those efforts and pass it when we return later after the summer session. Today were here to talk about what are the additional tools we can give firefighters. As of today, 50 more acres have already burned this year and yesterday a forecast report was released that predicts the west is likely to experience above normal wildfires over the next month. That shouldnt surprise people since we know exactly what has been trending the last few years. And while in the state of washington we have some fires, the rest over the country is seeing even more impact. So todays hearing is about the tools we can give to help decrease the risks of firefighting. I also want to thank steven king for being here from washington to talk about the innovative actions the city of wenatchee has been doing and undertaking to mitigate risks we know all too well from the 30mile fire. From the taylor con tomplex and other thing that impacted our state where over 100 million acres burned in one afternoon. The threat and how fast these fires can move. So, we want to make sure that we are giving new tools to firefighters. If we are seeing a new normal, which i dont want to think that its normal because this is very, very stressful for all of communities, but if we are seeing a new increase because of the dry conditions and the ability for fires to spread in so many more places so more quickly, what can technology do to help us address this and make us safer for the future . A couple of approaches that my colleagues, senator gardner, and i have been working on, to is make sure were using new Technology Tools to help us deal with fires. That is, First Time Ever wildfire mapping aircraft. The ability for aircraft to fly over these areas and also use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that would generate realtime mapping, depicting where the fires are burning. Making gps locators to fire crews available. Wildfire today refers to the combination of crew location and realtime fire maps as the holy grail wild land firefighting because it improves the safety for firefighters. This legs were proposing would also increase encourage federal agencies to take advantage of the tools we have at nasa in order to speed up the plan that goes into effect to prevent after the fire effect of flooding and erosion. These are important issues for us to map these areas, and i know as we look every year at noaas information, working with the Forest Service we know where our hot spots will be. Not that other spots arent going to see an impact because you never know where a fire is going to start, but gives us information about where to cash and put resours so resources so theyre available. We also want to make sure we do better with realtime forecasting information. In the state of washington we have a gap in the central part of the state. Do not want to have a region of our state left less protected because they dont have accurate Weather Forecasting information. We want to build on the state of the technology and to make sure that every Community Knows when and when it should not be sending firefighters out, given the Weather Forecast and the challenges we face. So, i agree with the chair, we need to work efficiently, work together, get the hasty response approach used in the central part of washington. That is, to have everybody ready, given the outbreaks of fires and so many locations, to have a hasty response. We also need to have a hasty response to getting this legislation over the goal line with our house of representatives as well. So, madam chair, thank you for holing this important hearing. Thank our witnesses for being here and our thoughts and prayers with those families impacted by the fire season. Thank you, senator cant wellwell. And know that my commitment remains to help address this in a way that is going to be more than just kind of the, he herkjerky way its been handle. The fire borrowing that limits the ability of agencies to do the work that we need them to do. So, having an approach that will yield enduring policy is what were all looking for here. Im pleased to be able to welcome the panel this morning. We have good input and i appreciate the time that you will spend with us. We will be led off by vic year and christiansen, the executive chief for the state and private forestry at the department offing a accurate. Mr. Bryan rice is the director for the office of wild landfire at department of interior up i have mentioned my friend, mr. Chris maisch, a state forrester for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and also here this morning, wearing another hat on behalf of the National Association of state foresters with appreciate your leadership. Mr. Steve king, the Economic Development director for the city of wenatchee, washington. Welcome to you. And i understand that senator stabenowow would like to introduce dr. Miller. Thank you very much, madam chair. Want to thank you for an incredibly important hearing and as the ranking democrat on agriculture, nutrition and forestry so i want to work with you to folk cause on provenges and management and all the money isnt transferred to fight fires. So thank you for this. We have tremendous expertise in michigan and i want to introduce dr. Mary el enmiller a Research Engineer at Michigan Tech Research Institute in ann arbor. Michigan tech, which is actually in the upper peninsula, as senator cantwell knows, up in houghton, michigan. A beautiful, beautiful place. Michigan tech is a leader in the use of Information Technology to solve security and infrastructure, Earth Science and environmental problems. With the help of nasa, dr. Miller has used model and argentina observations to predict erosion and runoff after wildfires in colorado and california. And of course not all of her work is hightech. She also spends plenty of time in the field with more lowtech fools like tipping bucket gauge monday and a bucket hatch. So thank you, dr. Miller. We look forward to hearing you unique scientific insights on wow watersheds are impact by wildfires. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, senator stabenow. At this time, if you want to lead the panel off we welcome your comments. Madam chairman and Ranking Members and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss collaboration to reduce wildfire risk. After the events of yesterday, loss of one of our own, were all our hearts are heavy and we send condolences to the community. This is a very appropriate time for this discussion. My name is vicky christiansen, deputy chief of state and private forestry for the usda Forest Service. My remarks will be framed by the National Cohesive wildLand Management strategy. All lands blueprint for building synergies to address the nations growing wildfire challenges. The three goals the co hes stiff strategy are restoring and maintaining resilience landscapes, creating fire adaptive communities, and an effective riskbased wildfire response. The Forest Service is committed to restoring and maintaining resilient landscapes across all jurisdictions. On our National Forest we achieve over 3 million acres of hazardous fuels treatments last year. We also worked across boundary width our partners. In 2006 we provided Financial Support to carry out nearly 15,000 acres of treatment on nonfederal lands. Since 2006 we have assessed more than 3,000 fuel treatments, and when tested by wildfires, 90 of these fuel treatments have shown to reduce the impacts of wildfire. For example in arizona, the field treatment associated with the White Mountain stewardship project dramatically slowed the rate of spread of the wildfire to allow firefighters to safely attack the fire and protect homes and property. The Forest Service collaborates with state and local partners to help prepare communities to withstand a wildfire. This is challenging because of the increasing development in the wailedland urban interface women work with state partners to assist communes in developing Community Wildfire protection plans. These plans Bring Community members together to address wild fire response, hazard mitigation, and community preparedness. As our Risk Assessment technology has development, our capability to help Communities Reduce their risk to wildfire has evolved. For example, you will hear more from mr. King about our Community Planning assistance for wildfire program. WildFire Prevention is a critical element to working collaboratively across the Land Ownership boundaries. Last year finally nine out of ten wildfires caused be humans, including some of the most costly fires. If we prevent unwanted humancautioned fires we can proactively use our resources to create resillant landscapes, improve response and help communities be prepared. A longstanding example of federal and nonfederal collaboration is smoky bear. His campaign is administered by the Forest Service, the National Association of state foresters and the ad council. Smoky will be 73 next week and is one of the worlds most recognizable characters. Our goal at the Forest Service is to work with partners to continuously improve our riskbased response wildfire. No one agency has the capability or the Surge Capacity to respond to wildfire alone so we have a collaborative approach in the u. S. It includes federal, state, tribal, city, county, contract, and havent volunteer firefighters. We continue to work with cooperators and industry on emerging technology to help respond to the challenges fire. The Forest Service invests 34 million each year in wild land fire information and Technology Systems and we work very clearly with the department of interior to develop an integrated approach and prioritize our investments to be able to update our legacy systems. The central platform is an enter spry agreeow spatial portal. This provide propertial provides up to addition wildfire situational information to First Responders to fire managers and the public. Through our research and Development Branch we continue to co will be operate with additional partners such as nasa on new and emerging technologies. We also partner and doi takes the lead on interagency capability on Unmanned Aircraft operations in wildland Fire Management. Although our missions and praters are diverse in our partners, we are united with a common vision and set of goals defined by the cohesive strategy. Established to collectively address our nations wildland fire challenges so we can redeem our responsibilities to the citizens of the u. S. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss wildfire risk, and collaboration. We look forward to work with the committee on these important issues. Ms. Rice, public. Good morning. Chairman murkowski, Ranking Member cantwell, members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and have this discussion. Its important. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the department of the interiors wildland fire program. First id like to start by saying that we in the department are saddened by yesterdays news of the fatality in heart felt condolences to the family and friends and i others affected. Were see the cumulative impacts of climate variability, drought, and Invasive Species that are creating this situation that leads us to being more susceptible to