The American Farm Bureau Federation and 13 state Farm Bureaus penned a letter urging lawmakers to support the Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act of 2020. Public Policy Director Ryan Yates says the legislation would provide managers of federal wildlands more resources to fight and prevent wildfires. “The Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act represents a great bipartisan step forward in an attempt to give federal land managers additional tools that help them better manage our federal forests, especially out west. And when it comes to looking at a fire season like we are having in 2020, it really identifies the need for continued active management on our federal lands.” Yates says the legislation will expedite forest management, accelerate post-fire restoration and reforestation, and remove dead and dangerous wood from national forests.
He adds the 2020 fire season demonstrates the need for this legislation.