Why not tap federal disaster funds?

Another huge fire out West becomes a media article at least twice a month now. In the 20th century we would lose less than 5,000,000 acres each year to these huge fires. Now, it's more like10 million acres annually. These fires wind up sterilizing the soil and leading to extensive post-fire flooding because there is no vegetation left to check rainwater runoff.

It does not look as things will be getting better. Winters are getting shorter and warmer; summers are hotter and dryer. Therefore, we have a longer fire season. The Western forests have become more vulnerable; they are dense, lack species diversity and are overpopulated with older, diseased trees susceptible to epidemics like the bark beetle infestation that has left behind 40 million acres of dead trees. Dense underbrush and dead trees are fuel for extreme wildfires. And, with our typical belief that nothing bad can happen to us, nearly 40 percent of recent development in the West has been in wildland fire zones.

The Forest Service now spends almost  50% of its budget on fighting these fires, but it is not enough. Lately, much of this money comes at the price of other necessary activities. A bill will come before Congress to change this situation; The bill would draw money from federal disaster funds when firefighting costs reached 70 percent of the 10-year average. 

It's a much more rational approach to a basic problem.