Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain says he’s already taking proactive measures to mitigate future impacts of wildfires in the Bayou State. After the state’s worst wildfire season in history, he plans to hire a Director of Meteorology to keep accurate and informed fire weather conditions.
“A lot of the information that was available was about the drought index and the actual soil conditions was inaccurate. So we’re going to have better reporting, better data, and a better able to predict what is going on in the soil conditions.”
This year alone, wildfires in the Bayou State charred 62,000 acres and destroyed $71 million in forestland from August through October.
Strain says he’ll ask lawmakers next year to approve 43 million dollars for new firefighting equipment and personnel. When it’s go time, he says fire crews must be trained to work effectively and safely.
“We’re going to be putting together a training academy for continuous training at our complex in Woodworth where we will be giving on site classes. And then we’re going to get heavy equipment in there for additional personnel to be trained.”
Strain says the 2023 wildfires placed many lives at risk. Though forces of nature like lightning can’t be controlled…
“The bottom line is trying to cut out all human factors or as many that resulted in these wildfires. The things that come from nature, we can’t change that. But we can change human behavior.”
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