Payson Roundup Explores True Cost of Wildfire

On the brink of the deadliest fire season in decades, federal agencies cut the ranks of their wildlands firefighters by 600, thanks to the automatic spending cuts contained in the “sequester” that grew out of the budget standoff in Congress.

What’s perhaps worse, the Forest Service has for years been cutting money for forest management and restoration to feed into the maw of its $3-billion fire-fighting budget, which now consumes half of its budget. In the upcoming year, the Forest Service will divert another $62 million from other uses to feed into the firefighting budget. 

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