JOHN K. WILEY
Associated Press Writer
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) -- Western governors and the Bush administration have agreed to a long-term national plan aimed at preventing and suppressing wildfires.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Interior Secretary Gale Norton signed a memorandum of understanding on the plan Monday at a meeting with members of the Western Governors' Association.
The 10-year plan calls for an aggressive effort to remove brush, trees and debris that can fuel catastrophic fires. It also seeks a long-term strategy for restoring wildlife habitats.
The memorandum of understanding, which stresses cooperation between federal, state and local authorities, sets a May 1 deadline for producing a detailed roadmap for implementing the plan.
Spending on reducing fuel for wildfires, and on teaching landowners about reducing fire risks, will amount to ``a very significant increase'' over current federal funding, Norton said.
``We continue to evaluate what the appropriate level of funding is going to be,'' she said.
Lyle Laverty, U.S. Forest Service national fire plan coordinator, said the agriculture and interior departments got about $1.7 billion more this year than last year so they could carry out provisions of the national fire plan.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who chaired the committee that drew up the plan, said Congress will have to increase funding every year for a decade if the fuel reduction projects are to be completed.
The day the fire plan agreement was signed, Kitzhaber declared a state of emergency because of wildfires in Oregon, and more than 8,500 firefighters battled hundreds of blazes throughout the West.
Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said he was ``quite nervous'' about the amount of dead wood, brush and debris in the forests.
``The longer we wait, the more difficult it will be'' to clear forests of fire fuels, he said.
Western governors also met with Bush administration officials on Monday to ask for help with the region's energy problems.
The governors pushed for a national energy policy that would make it easier to build transmission lines. A recent report from the governors' association estimates it will cost from $2 billion to more than $12 billion to build enough transmission capacity to serve the West.
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