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 2005-01-10-Dianne Feinstein-U.S. Forest Service |
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Feinstein says California will gain, not lose, money to fight wildfires
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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif) said instead of losing federal money to fight wildfires, california acually will increase its share by $2 million to $52 million. In a news release issued Friday, Jan. 7, the senator said the U.S. Forest Service last year had planned to reduce California's allotment from $50 million to $41 million. "I would like to thank Under Secretary (of Agriculture) Mark Rey for his reconsideration of this issue," she said. "It means a great deal to our state." As part of the now cancelled reductions, California would have lost half its federal funding for removing fuels from areas surrounding homes on Forest Service land. According to Feinstein, the "reduced funding would have..harmed efforts to curb wildfires in areas of Southern California such as Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear and the San Diego suburbs" that still are recovering from the October 2003 wildfires. —Donald H. Harrison |
