Commissioner Franz Concerned about Continued Fire Danger

Coming off the State’s 2nd Worst Wildfire Season

by Dennis Rahm

Hilary Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands who also heads up the State’s Department of Natural Resources, recently announced her intent to seek a $55-million budget from the Legislature in 2019 for Wildfire and Forest Health.

Hilary Franz tells LakeChelanNow that “we’re coming off the second worst wildfire season on record with over 18-hundred fires in all corners of the state.

Commissioner Franz Speaks to Chelan Community during a Town Hall this Summer

Franz comments about fire fighting challenges and her budget request.

Franz feels that many in the Legislature realize that our state is in a significant forest health crisis with 2.7-million acres of forest just in eastern Washington that are dying due to disease. She said “if we don’t get on top of reducing the fuel load and take care of this forest health crisis, we’re only going to see more significant catastrophic fires.”

She adds that work on reducing fuel loads is already underway in high priority zones. “This upcoming budget request is a continuation of ensuring that we’re building out our forest health program”, said Franz. The plan is to reduce fuels and treat over 35-thousand acres in 2019 and to also help provide support and services to private land owners who have significant fuel levels on their own lands.

Franz also discussed the recently published report by the U.S. Forest Service identifying several North Central Washington communities as high on the list for Wildfire Risk. Leavenworth was listed at number one while Wenatchee landed at number 5 and Chelan at number 6. Tonasket, Cashmere and Omak also landed in the top 10.

Franz tells LakeChelanNow it was no surprise to her that so many of the local communities ended up on the wildfire risk list.

Franz comments on community wildfire risk.

Franz indicated the DNR is currently developing and implementing a climate adaptation plan, noting that climate change posts a great threat to our water, wildlife and ways of life.