Eastern Washington’s dry forests have evolved with and depend on regular, low-intensity fire to thrive.

To protect communities and timber resources, we have been aggressively suppressing wildfire for over 100 years, and today, large portions of our forests are unnaturally dense with high levels of forest fuels, and less able to resist insects, disease and severe fire. When wildfire does occur — as it always has, and always will — these unhealthy forest conditions increase the likelihood of megafires that can’t be effectively contained from ground or air. We’ve seen the devastating effects on our communities, and in the Spring of 2016, our legislature intensified the search for proactive solutions.