But Rebecca Watson said the focus now is on prepositioning other aircraft for use during the coming wildfire season, so communities and firefighters are not put at risk by last week's cancellation of air tanker contracts.
"There are things we can look at that might put the air tankers back in service," Watson said in a telephone interview. "But those are long-term things."
Late Monday, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior canceled all contracts for use of 33 air tankers that normally spend the summer dropping retardant on wildfires.
There was simply no way to guarantee the safety of the airplanes, agency officials said.
Air tanker companies, including Missoula's Neptune Aviation, and Western congressmen objected, insisting the decision would put communities and firefighters in harm's way - and that an entire industry was being blamed for one contractor's poor record.
Both of the air tanker crashes that prompted the safety investigation were owned by Hawkins and Powers of Greybull, Wyo. Both lost their wings while dropping retardant on a fire.
However, Hawkins and Powers flew C-130As, while Neptune uses P2Vs and follows a maintenance regime more strict than that of commercial airliners.
On Friday, Watson said talk has now shifted to possibly involving the FAA in the inspection and certification of air tankers, so at least some of the aircraft can again be used.
"The land management agencies are not in the business of aircraft safety," she said. "We don't have that capacity. But there is talk now on the Hill about how they might encourage the FAA to get involved."
For now, though, wildland fire agencies are focused on the fire season at hand - which, Watson said, promises to be difficult.
"We are anticipating a year like 2000," Watson said. "We have very dry fuels out there. In fact, the large-diameter fuels are at their driest level in recorded history.
"In Montana, it's drier than 1988. These droughts are taking a toll on all this woody material."
The national Wildland Fire Leadership Council will meet this week in Sacramento, Calif., to talk about the coming fire season - and to take another look at the 2003 fires in southern California.
In addition, Watson said she continues to work on implementation of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act by encouraging communities nationwide to develop their own wildfire risk reduction plans.
Under the act, 50 percent of the risk-reduction dollars must be spent in the wildland-urban interface - those places where communities and forests merge.
Communities have to get involved, though, for the money to come their way, Watson said.
"We need to see a lot more plans developed," she said. "That's what Congress contemplated as the best approach to this problem. Then we can target resources where communities think they are needed."
Working collaboratively, communities can look at the resources they want to protect, then decide how best to achieve that protection, she said.
"One size does not have to fit all," Watson said. "If your community develops its own plan, you have the ability to define your wildland-urban interface and its fire-protection needs."
The federal government does not, however, provide money to individual homeowners who want to thin their own forests.
"It is the responsibility of individual landowners to protect their property from natural risks," Watson said. "The role of the government is to provide public education. We have to take responsibility to protect our own personal property."
Since the Bush administration launched its Healthy Forests Initiative, the Bureau of Land Management - which Watson oversees - has more than doubled its acreage of forest-thinning projects, the assistant secretary said.
In 2001, the BLM thinned 164,000 acres; in 2003, that number jumped to 480,000 acres.
"And we've been getting a lot more efficient with the money that we have," she said. "We are reaching 45 percent more acres in 2004 - and with 5 percent less money than we had in 2001."
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
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