Photos courtesy of the National Interagency Fire Center. As the political leader of the state dealing with the worst of the 2000 wildfires, Racicot has spoken out several times against the current administration, which he said was responsible for a 25 percent reduction in the Department of Interior's fire suppression budget this year. And the White House was well aware of the potential for the massive, widespread fires this season, he said. Racicot and Montana Congressman Rick Hill, another critic of the Clinton administration's fire policies, often cite a 1999 General Accounting Office report that described the conditions of the national forests and said 39 million acres of land were at high risk of burning. In addition, Racicot and Hill have also denounced some of the White House's environmental proposals, such as a recent proposal from Clinton and the U.S. Forest Service to ban road building within 40 million acres of national forestlands.
Roads are critical in fighting fires and maintaining forest health, they contend.
But others disagree with placing the blame on political leaders. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, responding to Racicot's charges on Fox News Sunday , said that federal funding for fire preparedness and treatment is actually higher now than it has been in several years. President Clinton earlier this summer visited firefighters on the front lines of the wildfires. Fuel loads are the small trees, bushes and other undergrowth in forests that, if built up over time, cause wildfires to burn faster and bigger. Forest managers for decades strived to put out every forest fire that developed.