Martz was scheduled to testify before a congressional panel Wednesday afternoon, but flew back to Montana early in the morning to deal with a family emergency.
Martz got word in Washington Tuesday night that her mother, Dorothy Morstein of Billings, suffered a stroke, the governor's spokesman, Chuck Butler, said Wednesday. Butler said the governor's mother is 86 or 87.
"While we are all hoping this wildfire season will be less destructive than those of the past four years, it does not appear that the overall situation is getting better," Martz said in her statement.
"Unless all levels of government and the public continue to work closely together we may soon find that what would have been seen as an extraordinary fire season in the past will start to be considered routine."
Her testimony was offered on behalf of the Western Governors.
During the 2003 wildfire season, more than 3.7 million acres burned and $1.5 billion was spent to suppress wildfires. Martz noted that the wildfires also scare tourists away and therefore hurt communities that depend on tourism.
"Wildfires near small Western rural communities before and during the tourist season can also be economically devastating," Martz said. "It is estimated that my 'little' state of Montana lost over $27 million in tourism dollars in 2000 as a result of our fires that year, which caused 300,000 potential tourists to stay away."
Martz said it was too soon to weigh in on legislation passed last year that aims to overhaul how the nation's forests are managed.
"The legal and administrative changes have only very recently been enacted, but we believe that these new authorities, if implemented in close cooperation with states and local partners as well as with sufficient levels of federal funding, will be effective."
The Bush administration has proposed a 15 percent boost in wildfire suppression, from $790 million in fiscal year 2004 to $908 million in fiscal year 2005. Hazardous fuels reduction programs within the Interior and Agriculture departments would also be increased from $442 million to $475 million.
The $908 million proposed for wildfire fighting falls short of the $1.4 billion that was spent to fight wildfires in 2002 and is slightly shy of the $1 billion that was needed to fight them in 2003.
Martz caught an early morning flight out of Washington on Wednesday and arrived in Billings around noon and visited her mother in the hospital. The governor's mother is doing well in the hospital, Butler said.
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