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Ducey Requests Wildfire Funds as Forest Managers Prepare for Early Fire Season

Bureau of Land Management

Governor Doug Ducey recently announced he’ll ask Arizona lawmakers to nearly double spending for wildfire prevention. KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius reports, it comes as forest managers are preparing for an early fire season.

Ducey’s $2 million request would go toward thinning projects and other hazardous vegetation removal on 22 million acres of state land. The funds, if approved by the legislature, would be available at the beginning of the next fiscal year in July.

"Hope here isn’t a strategy. It’s about having a plan and being prepared. You have to have flexibility when you’re managing a crisis but this is one that we’re anticipating and if it passes us by, all the better. If it’s here we’ll be ready," says Ducey.

Ducey says the state has also secured $640,000 in federal funding this year to thin U.S. Forest Service land in the state.

Officials with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management say wildfire danger is already high in many areas, and they’ll hire seasonal employees a month early this year.

According to the Department of Agriculture, snowpack is 36 percent of normal on the San Francisco Peaks, and 14 percent of median throughout the state. 

Ryan Heinsius joined KNAU's newsroom as an executive producer in 2013 and became news director and managing editor in 2024. As a reporter, he has covered a broad range of stories from local, state and tribal politics to education, economy, energy and public lands issues, and frequently interviews internationally known and regional musicians. Ryan is an Edward R. Murrow Award winner and a Public Media Journalists Association Award winner, and a frequent contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and national newscast.
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