Editorial: Following up on wildfires

Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006 | 8:11 a.m.

Every year wildfires roar across patches of Nevada wilderness. Eventually the flames are extinguished, the fire crews trudge home and the charred landscapes turn quiet. Then what?

The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have programs - with meager budgets - to rehabilitate and restore federal wild lands after a fire. But a Government Accountability Office report released this week revealed that neither agency monitors its work closely. That should change.

Some fires are part of healthy changes in ecosystems, but others are more destructive, inviting invasive plants in their wake or otherwise permanently altering wildlife habitat and soils. Some blazes destroy buildings, roads and recreational sites or strip away vegetation, leading to erosion, mudslides and clogged streams.

So recovery work is important - and it is vital to know whether the projects are working. But the Forest Service and BLM do not have comprehensive data. The agencies make funding requests without knowing exactly what the needs are, the GAO reported.

Forest Service officials told the GAO that a lack of funds and staff limit the agency's post-fire projects - and project monitoring. The Forest Service also reported that it's not always clear what kind of rehabilitation should be done because there is not enough science to support one method over another.

Lawmakers should boost the budgets of the Forest Service and BLM for new research and for recovery work - and the monitoring of it. The agencies then should prioritize, implement and be accountable for its post-fire projects.

The agencies have developed a pilot program in Nevada to test a "lessons learned" repository for data on launching and monitoring rehabilitation projects, which perhaps should be expanded until the agencies have a centralized national database on recovery needs and programs. At the very least, the agencies should track whether they are rehabilitating their most high-priority areas - and report that information to Congress.