December 7, 2021 - Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and former CAL FIRE Chief Ken Pimlott wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Daily News that lays out five steps Congress should take to reduce wildfire risk in California.

Feinstein and Pimlott propose the following actions:

1. “Reform forest management practices, most notably replacing small, scattered fuel-reduction projects with large-scale regional projects.”

2. “Underground power lines and insulate energy towers, improve the use of temporary power shut-offs and prioritize home and infrastructure hardening.”

3. “Raise salaries for federal firefighters and transition more positions from seasonal to permanent.”

4. “Invest heavily in training to further professionalize our federal firefighting force and focus on training for safe, effective use of prescribed burns.”

5. “Revamp the biomass industry and invest in innovative timber-use initiatives to expand the economy for small-diameter timber removal.”

“We fully support robust actions to get climate change under control; that’s the only way we’ll ultimately decrease the rates of catastrophic wildfire. Until that happens, we need to direct our attention toward strategies that will have quicker results,” Feinstein and Pimlott wrote in conclusion.

“These actions we’ve outlined, combined with additional authority and substantial funding in the infrastructure bill and Build Back Better Act, should help protect communities in California and across the West from climate-driven wildfire.”

Read the full op-ed in the Los Angeles Daily News here.
Source: Senator Dianne Feinstein