FEMA responds to beetle wildfire threat criticism

The Colorado Independent’s Jan. 9 article “Michael Brown, FEMA and the bark beetle: Talk about your looming disasters” identified the looming threat of a catastrophic wildfire in Colorado’s pine beetle-ravaged forests. Unfortunately, the article failed to recognize two important facts regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) involvement in this important issue: 1) FEMA Region VIII, based in Denver, has been working collaboratively with local, state and federal partners to prepare for such a fire, 2) federal law prevents FEMA from using taxpayer money to simply clear beetle-ravaged forests.