Letter to Honorable Thomas J. Vilsack, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture - Bennet, Hickenlooper Call on Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to Assist Colorado Communities Recovering from Devastating Wildfires
Letter
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
Congratulations on your confirmation to serve as the Secretary of Agriculture. We look forward
to working with you to advance the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) mission.
As you start this work, we write to highlight the importance of ongoing wildfire recovery efforts
in Colorado and ask for your assistance in supporting this work.
Last summer, wildfires consumed over 10 million acres across the country, with almost 50
percent burning on National Forest Service land. In Colorado, we saw the three largest fires in
state history and over 350,000 acres burned on federal land. The Cameron Peak Fire burned over
200,000 acres in four months, and in one day alone, the East Troublesome Fire grew more than
100,000 acres. In Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service has already identified approximately $50
million in immediate needs, while Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Emergency
Watershed Protection (EWP) projects are also projected to cost over $50 million.
We encourage you to support wildfire recovery in Colorado and across the West. The NRCS
EWP program and the Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program are
vital tools for short and long-term recovery. However, the effectiveness of these programs is
sometimes limited due to administrative hurdles, local match requirements, staffing shortages,
and inconsistent funding. Therefore, we encourage you to use USDA's broad discretion to
maximize flexibilities as needed, and we stand ready to work with you in Congress to ensure that
wildfire recovery programs have the funding and flexibility they need.
We appreciate your demonstrated commitment to our forests and watersheds and look forward to
working with you in the months ahead to ensure that Colorado communities have a partner in the
USDA as they recover from these devastating wildfires.
Sincerely,
Source