Unprecedented investment
Most of the money, though, will go toward firefighting, which would receive 56% of the new funding. Protection is a pressing concern, as about 951,000 homes in Washington sit near forests threatened by wildfire.
The most endangered communities lie in a swath extending from Spokane southwest to the Columbia River, and then running north past Wenatchee into the Methow Valley. Much of Central and Eastern Washington, in other words, where summer fires have become a constant.
“Fire season is unfortunately becoming the fifth season,” Paul Jewell, a lobbyist for the Washington State Association of Counties, told the Senate Ways and Means Committee. During the same hearing, Laura Osiadacz,
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