A former state legislator is calling it "dereliction of duty": An ambitious wildfire protection plan proposed more than three years ago by the Texas Forest Service is still barely half-funded, even as one of the worst fires in state history continues to burn in Bastrop County. The twenty-million-dollar plan would have added more than 200 firefighters, created rapid-response teams to quash small flare-ups, built advanced automated weather stations and established two training academies for wildfire crews. The Forest Service admits even that plan wouldn't have reduced the effects of the huge blazes being fought this month. Legislators have provided about twelve million less than Forest Service officials think they need for adequate wildfire protection.
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