Washington forest bill would bolster wildfire resources, recruit diverse firefighting force

(The Center Square) — Wildfires are burning more of Washington state by the year and state lawmakers on Friday advanced a bill that would see the state diversify its firefighters.

In 2020, Washington wildfires burned some 713,000 acres — over double the state’s 320,000 acre 10-year average. They also destroyed 181 homes and killed a one-year-old child.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources Wildfire reported in 2019 that statewide firefighting costs averaged $153 million per year over the past five years. The price tag for 2020’s wildfires could be even higher.

Washington leaders like Gov. Jay Inslee have blamed climate change and rising carbon emissions for the state’s worsening wildfire seasons.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports statewide temperatures have risen by as much as two degrees in the past century as woodlands have become drier. In 2018, up to 40% of the 1,800 fires burning statewide were in the normally greener pastures of Western Washington, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

State Rep. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland, told his colleagues on Friday in committee that the situation demands a state intervention.

“This is not going to end by itself,” Springer said. “And if we think it is, it’s just it’s fantasy, we have to take an active role at creating a long term strategy to address the underlying causes of the increasing incidence of wildfire, not the least of which is an aggressive program to address forest health.”

House Bill 1168 would help map out the program with the creation of the Forest Health Assessment and Treatment Framework charting small forestland owners in high-risk zones for wildfires. The bill would also set up forestland owner assistance and outreach programs to help a diverse range of small forest landowners practice good forest keeping.

Those practices include prescribed burns, or fires designed to burn underbrush and other materials that could fuel larger wildfires, and clearcutting to trim down dense forests which could create hotter fires.

The spending package would bolster the ranks of the state’s forest workforce and include post-sentence employment for incarcerated firefighters.

As adopted, the bill’s language specifies partnerships with local indigenous tribes and public investments for “historically marginalized, underrepresented, rural, and low-income communities.”

Forest health programs would see expenses capped at 25% and community programs capped at 15% of the bill’s total funding which is currently unsourced.

Similar proposals in past years taxed property and casualty insurance premiums, which Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, described as “troubling.”

Rep. Joel McEntire, R-Cathlamet, was one of three committee members to vote no on the bill and the lone member to vote no without recommendation.

McEntire said he believed the bill had good intent, but wanted to see it attached to a more specific funding source.

He also took shots at its equity provisions to the chagrin of several colleagues on Friday.

“I find it disturbing that the concept of equity has been coupled with this [bill],” McEntire said. “The forest fires don’t care who’s fighting the fires, what we need are qualified people to fight fires.”

McEntire’s remarks drew challenges from several committee members, including Rep. Sharon Shewmake, D-Bellingham.

“We see from multiple sources of social science research is that diverse teams do better,” Shewmake said. “As a woman who’s always often working in an area with a lot of different men, I’ve seen the change of when we have a more diverse team than from when I’m the only one on it.”

Recent research supports the idea that workplace diversity improves innovation, including a widely-cited 2015 McKinsey study of 366 public companies which found ethnically and racially diverse management were 35% more likely to see above-average profits. Gender diverse management were 15% more likely to see the same results.

Rep. Melanie Morgan, D-Parkland, summed up McEntire’s comment as verbal discrimination familiar for women of color like herself.

“I will say that as a former school board member, I spent three years listening to statements like we need highly qualified teachers,” Parkland said. “And for me, that is just code word, or we don’t want to involve communities of color saying that they are not qualified to be a teacher. And so today, what I’m hearing those same words come forward in terms of workforce development.”

Friday’s passionate words convinced Orcutt, a former Idaho forest fighter, to vote for the bill despite his stated misgivings about its question of funding.

“I look at this [bill] as a chance to vote on policy,” Orcutt said. “I expect somewhere along the way, I’m going to get a chance to vote on the funding aspect of it. And I can spend a lot of time talking about how we were wrong not to do it before, but I think we are absolutely right to be doing it now.”

House Bill 1168 awaits a scheduled hearing by the Washington Legislature’s House Finance Committee.

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