Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs [D] signed a non-binding Shared Stewardship Agreement with the federal government on Thursday, Oct. 10, intended to enable state and federal agencies to collaborate to reduce community wildfire risk.
“Arizona doesn’t have a wildfire ‘season’ anymore,” Hobbs said. “Arizonans are under threat of wildfire 365 days a year, and the threat posed by wildfires grows every year, which means we need all the tools available to combat them. Thousands of state, federal and local partners worked with us to address nearly 2,000 wildfires in Arizona this year.”
The agreement schedules an annual planning meeting between the U.S. Forest Service and the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management to coordinate their efforts on conducting prescribed wildfire burns, fire prevention and post-fire watershed and forest restoration work…