Daines: Forest Management Vital to Reducing Threat of Wildfire in Montana [VIDEO]

Senator Steve Daines today emphasized the importance of proper management of Montana’s National Forests to reduce the costly threat of devastating wildfires in Montana.

“I’ve spent a lot of time traveling across Montana hearing from conservation groups, sportsmen groups and the timber industry, and I think we’ve got great, broad spectrum agreement that we have to change the way wildfire suppression is funded,” Daines stated. “It’s essential that Congress resolves this challenge this year, and I’m going to do everything I can to help make that happen.”

According to the Forest Service, seven million federally controlled acres in Montana are at high or very high risk of wildfire. 1.8 million acres of that high-risk forestland are near populated communities or threatened watersheds. The Forest Service only performed treatment on 52,000 of those acres in the last year.

Senator Daines will call Thursday, late morning, for a conversation to air Friday just after 7am.  Have a question for the senator?