KTRV Fox 12 Governors Announce Plans for Interstate Cooperation to Battle Wildfires
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Boise, Idaho -- Idaho's likely record-breaking fire situation is a top priority for Gov. Butch Otter.
On Monday, Otter met with governors from Nevada, Utah and Wyoming to address the wildfire threat.
The governors are planning to use interstate cooperation to help suppress the blazes and prevent a season like this one from ever happening again. Governors from nearly every western state facing a catastrophic wildfire season met for over two hours at Gowen Field in Boise.
They have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding, clarifying how states will work together to deal with the wildfire problem. The leaders have also agreed to appoint a multi-state group to work cooperatively on fire suppression, prevention and rehabilitation.
"We also agreed that we would try to put a plan together by the first of September on a demonstration project on a pilot project," said Otter.
"We have got a real crisis on our hands and the only way we're going to break this cycle of cheat grass wildfire, cheat grass, wildfire, is to do a pilot program," said Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons.
The pilot project will likely focus on the restoration of some of the land destroyed by the fires. It will serve as a model for how millions of acres across the West will be rehabilitated to be more fire resistant.
As the governors and representatives from the federal government put it, they're declaring war on the flammable weed -- cheat grass.
"Because of the way it grows, it dries out so fast it and has a huge fuel loading," said Stephen Allred, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
Wherever cheat grass grows, fire is likely. So the idea is to prevent it from coming back on land that's been burned.
"We're looking at what forage can be put in there that will sort of crowd out the cheat grass and/or give native grasses a chance to survive," said Gibbons.
Two native seeds bed in Idaho have been destroyed by fires, but neighboring governors are offering to help.
The federal government has also pledged its cooperation with the governors's plans.
"When we start to look at how do we rehabilitate these lands and fire proof them, it takes everyone, so I applaud these governors," said Allred.
The plan to rehabilitate burned land with more fireproof plants will also require work on the congressional level.
Current national fire recovery efforts are under funded, but Western leaders hope that will soon change.
