Summer in Washington used to mean clear blue skies, but recently they are mostly remembered for the wildfire smoke. Two bills, in the house and senate, are going to focus on communities that suffer the most from wildfires.
The “Cascading Impacts of Wildfire” legislation was proposed by Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz who leads the Department of Natural Resources. The bipartisan bills are sponsored by Reps. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland, Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, and Sens. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley, and Sharon Shewmake, D-Bellingham, according to the news release.
“We have DNR doing some great work out there fighting fires, but I also think people need to better understand the risk of fires,” Shewmake told The Bellingham Herald. “Preparation for disaster before the disaster occurs is super, super important. So let’s do some of that at the statewide level.”
