Fire season is going to be bad in the western United States this year, and what’s worse is that sequestration has limited what resources are available to stop the fires once they happen. This means that firefighting agencies are likely to face huge budget shortfalls by the end of the year, and increases the chance for fatalities.

Drought is going to be a real problem during 2013 in the west, as Think Progress reports:

The Western U.S. faces low mountain snowpack, and the most recent U.S. Seasonal Drought Monitor Outlook finds that “drought is forecast to either develop or persist across the western contiguous U.S. as this region enters its dry season.”

Dry conditions in nearly half the country make hampered fire management budgets and sequestration cuts even more dangerous for residents and will lead to even more shortfalls this season. A recent report found that climate change will double the area burned by wildfires by 2050. Drought and wildfires, in addition to harming people and property, also have dramatic impacts on insects like monarch butterflies, as well as mammals, birds, reptiles, and nearly every plant in the region.

The sequester is going to be felt in the entire region this year, as reported by Democrats in the House Committee on Appropriations, who stated the following in their report:

For the 2013 firefighting season, the Forest Service will have 500 fewer firefighters, 50-70 fewer fire engines, and two fewer aircraft because of sequestration. Last year’s severe fire season resulted in a more than $400 million shortfall in wildland fire operations, which, in the short-term required borrowing from other accounts. Most of these funds were later repaid in the first CR in FY 2013, but the agency had to halt existing activities in other areas for several months until the supplemental funds were provided. In fact, some of the money borrowed was already designated to help manage forest lands – and reduce the risk of wildland fire. In 2012 the Forest Service borrowed money from the State and Private Forestry program which provides assistance to land owners and resource managers to help protect communities and the environment from fires, insect infestations, disease and invasive plants. The Forest Service also borrowed heavily from a program to pay for brush disposal on public lands. This is another example of sequestration forcing terrible long-term trade-offs; we are borrowing from the very programs that help reduce the risk of catastrophic fires to provide the resources to fight those fires. Already agencies are estimating that they could be more than $700 million short in firefighting funds in FY 2013, which will require them to again take funds from other accounts to make up the firefighting funding shortfall.

It’s already looking like records are going to be set this fire season, and climate change is ensuring fires in that region are only going to increase. We have to have the resources to fight them. Not to mention that the potential damage of an unfought fire is going to far exceed the monetary cost of hiring firefighters!

As someone who lives in an area heavily affected by wildfires, knowing that a fire is close and that there aren’t the resources to fight it would bring real fear to those in the rural, outlying communities that have livestock, pets or their livelihood on their land. Usually there aren’t many people displaced by fires, but with the loss in resources and increase in fires, it’s more likely than it should be that people will be losing their homes — even their lives — in my region, and others, this fire season.