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We need Congress to help remove the regulation barriers that hamper local cooperative efforts. 

 Our federal and state fuels managers need to work with air quality regulators better together to 

 integrate fuels management needs with air quality needs. Air quality regulations create a self- 

 defeating push for strict air quality that will restrict the use of prescribed fire operations. The 

 result will be an increased risk of a large damaging fire and the resultant smoke emissions. When 

 this happens, the air quality program suffers, fire suppression is more costly, and our stakeholders 

 suffer more damage. There are many such conflicting regulations that must be dealt with. 



We need Congressional help for a proactive forest fuel utilization research and development 

 program. Prescribed fire is our current most viable program for dealing with wildland fuels 

 Prescribed fire is risky and produces smoke. A viable biomass industry could give our managers 

 an additional tool in their PreFire Management toolbox and create jobs for more citizens. 



We ask that Congress support James Lee Witt's efforts to allow FEMA to take a pro-active 

 stance toward improving public safety, reducing citizen losses, and reducing economic costs and 

 destruction of natural resources that result from natural hazards. FEMA has long been the "deep 

 pocket : ' of disaster relief funds following major wildland fire sieges. We agree with Mr. Witt that 

 it is cheaper to prevent the damage than to pay for the repair after the disaster. 



Our citizens pay local, state and federal taxes. They expect and deserve a government that 

 delivers the best available service for the cost. I believe that coordinated cooperative planning 

 and focused PreFire Management will go a long way toward delivering the best government 

 service that we are able to deliver. The answer is not a CDF Fire Plan and a separate USD A 

 Forest Service Fire Plan in California. The answer is a California Fire Plan. 



Building Cooperative State-Federal Solutions to California's Wildland Fire Challenges 



