Senate Democrats yesterday introduced an amendment to a hurricane relief bill that would restore $653 million in funding for the Forest Service's wildfire management fund to prepare for what sponsors warn could be another severe season in the West.

The amendment by Sens. Mark Udall of Colorado and Jon Tester of Montana was offered to the Senate's $60 billion Superstorm Sandy relief bill, which the chamber began debating this week.

The proposal follows a wildfire season in which more than 9 million acres burned, the second-highest amount in the past decade and the third-worst wildfire season in the nation's history. The 2013 season is expected to be even more severe, Udall said. The Forest Service has had to use money from other accounts to pay for firefighting.

"We need to be prepared," said Udall, whose state last summer saw its most destructive wildfire season on record. The High Park blaze near Fort Collins and the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs burned tens of thousands of acres, destroyed nearly 600 homes and at one time displaced tens of thousands of residents.

"Wildfire can devastate communities, both during the fires and long after with damaged watersheds and increased flooding risks," he said.

The additional funding would be spent to preposition ground crews, hot shots and air support in places at risk of severe wildfires, in addition to supporting the purchase of additional large air tankers used as an initial attack against blazes while ground crews get in position. It would also help fund hazardous fuel removal where forests abut communities.

The amendment, which is also co-sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), would boost the budget request for the agency's Wildland Fire Management fund to $1.584 billion, the projected median cost of the fire season, the senators said.

Such amendments may face a heavy lift in the Senate, where some Republicans have criticized the size of the Sandy bill and particularly provisions they say would extend beyond the states that were affected by the storm.

Udall and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) last week praised the inclusion in the Sandy bill of $125 million for a program that would help communities in Colorado restore watersheds damaged by last summer's devastating wildfires (Greenwire, Dec. 13).