Allison Winter, Author at The Pulse

Wildfire responders urge Congress to improve disaster aid process for at-risk communities

By Allison Winter

October 27, 2021

In Environment, News

Image: AdobeStock

WASHINGTON — The federal government should re-examine its emergency response systems to better assist communities at risk from the growing threats of wildfire, state and local wildfire responders told members of Congress Tuesday.

Wildfires across the United States have become larger, more intense and longer-lasting this century in part due to changes in the global climate—creating more demand for federal aid in response to the fires and for mitigation in fire-prone areas.

“Climate change, dangerous fuel accumulations and increased development in the wildland urban interface has caused a significant increase in catastrophic loss of life, property and ecosystems across the United States, most dramatically in the Western U.S.,” Kacey KC, the Nevada State Forester Firewarden, told members of a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee at a hearing.

The hearing comes as Western states recover from another massive wildfire season.

In 2021, more than 48,000 wildfires burned over 6.5 million acres in the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, a government group dedicated to fire management.

That added to the significant toll of wildfires over the past 15 years, as states often see record years for wildfires. Since NIFC started its modern record-keeping of wildfires in 1983, there have been 10 years when 8 million acres or more burned. All of those records occurred since 2004.

“All Western states have seen record-setting wildfires in recent years. Drought conditions have resulted in forests ready to explode—whether from a lightning bolt, errant campfire spark, utility lines being interrupted by trees, or an arsonist’s match,” said Rep. Dina Titus, (D-Nev.), who led the hearing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency—the federal government’s response arm for disasters— issued five major disaster declarations from fires last year. The agency also provided 33 Fire Management Assistance Grants, its major tool to help states manage land to try to mitigate wildfires before they start.

“It is critical for us to ensure FEMA is positioned to assist those communities to prepare for, mitigate against and recover from wildfires. And it may be very different than what is needed for floods or hurricanes,” said Rep. Daniel Webster, (R-Fla.). “People need to get assistance without costly delays and mountains of paperwork.”

‘Now is the time to learn’

State wildfire recovery experts say FEMA’s help is increasingly necessary, but many of the agency’s programs are slow to respond to the immediacy of fire threats. Read more

Congressional Democrats seek support services for survivors of Native American boarding schools

By Allison Winter

August 24, 2021

In News, race

Five young male Sioux student, c. 1880 – Photo: Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers are pushing federal agencies to provide support for survivors of and communities affected by American Indian boarding school policies, the decades-long practice of forcibly sending Native American children to faraway boarding schools that rejected their tribal cultures.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas) sent a request this month for the government to set up “culturally appropriate supports” for the trauma that Native American communities may experience as the federal government begins to investigate the painful history of these schools.

That support could include creating a crisis hotline or offering counseling services. Nineteen other members of Congress signed on to the letter to leaders of the Indian Health Service, Interior Department, and Department of Health and Human Services.

They include Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).

At issue are years of trauma from the federal government’s push, starting in the late 1800s, to remove hundreds of thousands of Native American children from their communities.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has directed her agency to investigate the painful chapter of U.S. history. That probe will include attempting to identify the children who attended, as well as finding records of cemeteries or burial sites connected with the schools that may contain unidentified human remains.

As the investigation unfolds, the 21 members of Congress want the federal government to do more to aid Native American communities in processing the probe’s findings.

“The legacy of these policies continues to impact Native communities through intergenerational trauma, grief over the loss of children who never returned, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, health disparities, substance abuse, premature deaths, despair, and additional undocumented psychological trauma,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.

Specifically, they want to see the Indian Health Service work with other agencies to support survivors, their families and their communities as the investigation “will inevitably shed light on extremely troubling episodes in our nation’s history.”

The lawmakers’ letter was prompted by a request from the National Indian Health Board, a nonprofit that provides health policy research for all 574 federally recognized tribes, and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, a nonprofit formed by Native American groups a decade ago.

“The first step we need to take is caring for our boarding school survivors,” said Deborah Parker, a member of the Tulalip Tribes and the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition’s director of policy and advocacy.

Parker added that she’s grateful the lawmakers on the letter “have recognized the importance and urgency of putting in place trauma-informed supports for our American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian relatives.”

A painful history

The Indian Health Service is reviewing the lawmakers’ request and is discussing next steps, according to a statement from an agency spokesperson. Read more

Endangered species to get a reprieve under Biden administration plans

By Allison Winter

June 22, 2021

In Environment, News

Rusty patched bumble bee – Image: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

WASHINGTON — The lesser prairie-chicken, a rare dancing grouse once abundant on the Great Plains, could benefit again soon from the protection of the U.S. government.

So could the rusty patched bumblebee, a black-headed pollinator that at one time ranged from Georgia to Maine and across the Midwest.

The Biden administration is rewriting how it protects endangered species—making significant shifts in regulations that could affect how habitat is kept safe for these and other imperiled birds, fish, insects, mammals and plants across the United States.

Biden administration officials announced this month that they would revisit five key regulations in the Endangered Species Act. In doing so, they will overturn changes the Trump administration had made to narrow the scope of the law and make it easier to approve development.

The revamped regulations could give stronger protection to some 2,700 species protected under the act. There are dozens of candidates in some states—68 in North Carolina, 72 in Arizona, 24 in Louisiana, 134 in Florida, 26 in Michigan, 24 in Maryland.

Among those that could benefit are birds like the lesser prairie-chicken, which has declined 97 percent in the past century, largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation, some of which came from oil and gas development.

The Fish and Wildlife Service last month proposed listing it as threatened in Colorado and Kansas and endangered in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Then there’s the rusty patched bumblebee. It received endangered status in 2017, due to habitat loss, climate change and threat from pesticides.

But the government did not protect any critical habitat for the bee, a decision environmentalists sued to try to reverse.

Years of battles

The Biden administration’s regulatory reversals are the latest in years of tug-of-war between Democratic and Republican administrations over how to implement the Endangered Species Act, passed by Congress in 1973.

Environmentalists hail the landmark law as one of their most powerful tools and credit it for rescuing the American crocodile, gray wolf and bald eagle. Republicans have criticized it for becoming mired in lawsuits and land restrictions, while relatively few species graduate off the list.

Over the years, members of Congress have made several failed attempts to rewrite the act.

However, the Trump team was able to make significant changes to how it implemented the act through regulations that required no approval from Congress.

“The Trump administration changes significantly weakened the act, way beyond what was done in the past. They really moved away from Congress’ original intent of the law to protect any and all imperiled wildlife, animals or plants,” said Jacob Malcolm, director of the Center for Conservation Innovation at Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit that aims to find creative solutions to save species through research and policy. Read more

New funding to curb wildfires pushed in Congress, as another fire season looms

By Allison Winter

April 30, 2021

In Environment, News

A firefighting crew trains in Montana – Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Lawmakers focus on the western U.S., but the problem is national in scope

WASHINGTON — As wildfires across the United States grow in size, intensity and duration each summer, members of Congress from the West are pushing for massive new investments in ecosystem management and wildfire mitigation.

House lawmakers called for more attention to wildfire management and support for wildland firefighters at a hearing Thursday before a House Natural Resources Committee panel. It was just the second hearing this year for the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, and Subcommittee Chairman Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) said that early attention exemplifies the importance of the issue.

“For those of us that live in the West, wildfires are one of the most immediate and obvious impacts of climate change. Wildfires today are nearly a year-round risk, burning larger areas at a higher intensity. This is only projected to increase as the climate continues to warm,” Neguse said.

Neguse has an ambitious plan to create a Civilian Climate Corps, dedicated to bolstering wildfire prevention and managing forests. The Biden administration included $10 billion for the jobs plan in its massive infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan.

Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said climate change and the higher risk of wildfire from drought is changing the decades-old debate on whether to manage wildfire risk with forest thinning.

“One of the issues in this committee has been it was always an either-or proposition when it comes to dealing with fire: Either you cut your way out of the problem or the other issue is that it is a phenomenon that cannot be controlled,” Grijalva said. “Climate change has changed that whole debate entirely.”

Grijalva said the Biden administration’s goals to reduce carbon emissions and create jobs offer new opportunities to move on legislation to support forest management and firefighters.

“Having this hearing is important as we address the Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan and what resources we can use to match the need,” Grijalva told lawmakers at the virtual hearing.

Dry, flammable conditions

The issue is close to home for Neguse and other Westerners. The two largest wildfires in Colorado history both blazed through Neguse’s district last summer.

Wildfires provoked a year of devastating losses in 2020. More acres burned in Arizona in 2020 than the previous two years combined. Montana lost more structures to fire last year than it had since 2012.

Nevada had fewer fires than in recent summers but still issued air quality advisories due to California fires.

In total, wildfires burned about 10.3 million acres in the United States last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, a government group dedicated to fire management. That was just a few thousand acres short of the record set in 2015. Read more

U.S. House Agriculture panel to key in on climate change and farming

By Allison Winter

February 26, 2021

In Environment, News

Rep. David Scott D- Ga.

Rep. Alma Adams

Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore testifies on rise in extreme weather events

WASHINGTON — Democrats are eyeing proposals that would support programs for U.S. farmers—who have suffered catastrophic losses from severe weather events in recent years—to reduce carbon emissions on their land.

In his first major policy hearing as House Agriculture Committee chairman, Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) said Thursday that the issue of climate change would be key for his panel this year. He wants to encourage farmers to adopt more conservation practices that can mitigate climate change.

“This is perhaps the single most important hearing that we must have right now because agriculture is our single most important industry,” Scott said at the hearing with climate and agriculture experts. “And they, more than any other entity or industry, suffer more and benefit from climate and weather.”

Scott, the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has identified climate change, racial inequities within the agriculture industry and food insecurity as his top priorities for this year.

Scott called on agricultural producers and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to try to come together to find agreement on the issue—even though climate change has been a divisive issue.

“This is critical. I want us to move forward with this with an open heart and an open mind,” Scott said.

North Carolina’s Rep. Alma Adams echoed the sentiments expressed by Scott. “Climate change is a crisis and we ought to treat it like one. And like this pandemic, the impacts are being felt disproportionately by the most vulnerable,” said the 12th District Democrat.

Greenhouse gas emissions from ag

About 10 percent of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, according to a report from the EPA. Agriculture can also be a source of carbon offsets through soil management, cover crops, conservation projects and forestry.

Recent research suggested that a global effort to replenish soil and remove carbon already in the atmosphere could result in a 10 percent carbon reduction.

Meanwhile, the severe weather events associated with climate change are causing havoc for American farmers.

“Weather is becoming more volatile as the earth warms at an alarming rate and that puts the very people who make a living off the land, American farmers, in the crosshairs of economic peril,” Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore of Atlanta told lawmakers at the hearing.

“Honestly, we simply can’t afford to accept that these events are the norm,” said Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), noting the millions of acres of farmland that had been destroyed in the derecho and flooding events in Iowa in the past two years.

“We have to take action on this climate crisis to reduce our carbon emissions and build up resiliency so our farmers can be successful.”

The hearing comes as the Biden administration considers options to incorporate agriculture in its plans for ”net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said he wants to support and create incentives for farmers, ranchers and foresters to use more environmentally friendly practices.

Vilsack said in his confirmation hearing that he would like to build markets to pay farmers to sequester carbon and capture and reuse methane. The Senate voted 92-7 Tuesday to confirm Vilsack as agriculture secretary, and he was sworn in on Wednesday.

Republicans at the hearing said they are open to discussion on climate and agriculture, but insisted that any programs for farmers should be voluntary. Read more

Posts by awinter

Wildfire responders urge Congress to improve disaster aid process for at-risk communities

Congressional Democrats seek support services for survivors of Native American boarding schools

Endangered species to get a reprieve under Biden administration plans

New funding to curb wildfires pushed in Congress, as another fire season looms

U.S. House Agriculture panel to key in on climate change and farming

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Posts by awinter

Wildfire responders urge Congress to improve disaster aid process for at-risk communities

Congressional Democrats seek support services for survivors of Native American boarding schools

Endangered species to get a reprieve under Biden administration plans

New funding to curb wildfires pushed in Congress, as another fire season looms

U.S. House Agriculture panel to key in on climate change and farming

Top Stories from NCPW

Now Hiring

Recent Blog Posts