Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Louisiana Forestry - FY2023 budget info

https://house.louisiana.gov/housefiscal/DOCS_APP_BDGT_MEETINGS/DOCS_APPBudgetMeetings2022/FY
23 Department of Agriculture and Forestry.pdf

25 pages approx

$1.5M to buy 7 replacement fire suppression dozers

$500,000 for major repairs to 33 dozers

average salary $55,000

590 total staff for Department of Agriculture - 114 of them are firefighters

400 fires per year - 2019 2020 2021 - (there were 1,000 fires in 2014 ish)

155 firefighters in 2008 - 114 now

looks like their funding dipped after 2008 (for the entire agency -
not just forestry) - no mention of why - but there is no clear
indication that the number of fires increased

local fire departments probably control a large number of wildfires in
Louisiana with small pumpers - State Forestry has the dozers (and
maybe some aircraft) - but there are probably not too many huge areas
of forestland in Louisiana that the local FDs cannot reach in under 30
minutes - yes this might account for the 33% drop in State Forestry
firefighters but no major obvious rise in wildfire losses

No comments:

Post a Comment