ESA ACTION ALERT: Contact your Members of Congress and ask them to restore funding for the Joint Fire Service Program in the US Forest Service budget.
Dear ESA Members: The Joint Fire Service Program provides scientific information and tools that policymakers, resource managers, and other parties can use to protect forests, communities, and watersheds from wildland fire. We are concerned that the administration’s 2017 US Forest Service (USFS) budget request cuts funding for the Joint Fire Science Program’s (JFSP) budget by $6.194 million within its Wildland Fire Management budget. Instead, the Service has designated $3 million for the JFSP from the $292 million Forest and Rangeland Research account without increasing its funding. No other federal program except the JFSP provides the integration of science and management needed to face the challenges that lie ahead—we will be living in a world with more fire. Research in fire science is crucial to anticipating how ecosystems and landscapes may change in the future, how fire should be managed in both wildlands and developed areas, and where mitigation or adaptation strategies are most appropriate. Reductions in support for JFSP are inconsistent with high- priority national research needs. If this is an issue of importance to you, the Ecological Society of America encourages you to take action: 1. Contact your Representative and Senators –either by phone or email. State that you are a constituent who is concerned about the Joint Fire Service Program budget cuts. If you have specific examples of how the JFSP money is being used in your state, be sure to include them in your communication. 2. Request that the USFS restore the JFSP budget cut of $6.194 million under the Wildland Fire Management budget and fully fund Forest and Rangeland Research program for $292 million. 3. Ask that the Representative and/or Senator contact the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies requesting USFS restore the JFSP budget. 4. Thank the office for considering your request. Find your Representative here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/ and type in your zip code. Find you Senators here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and search by state.
