wildfire costs Archives - Marketplace

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A Warmer World

Wildfires are more frequent, getting worse — and straining government budgets

by Samantha Fields

Dec 12, 2022

Federal spending by the two main agencies that manage wildfires has doubled in the last decade, Pew found. States are spending more too.

A fire burns east of Eugene, Oregon, in September 2020. Pew researcher Colin Foard pointed out that the state of Washington's average annual spending on wildfires more than tripled during the 2010s.

Tyee Burwell/AFP via Getty Images

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