During that time, U.S. Forest Service officials treated about 10,000 acres annually through thinning and control burns intended to reduce the size of wildfires when they occur.
"Prescribed fire is one of the more effective and cost-efficient means of managing vegetation for multiple purposes, including hazard reduction, ecosystem restoration or maintenance, silviculture and others," Deputy Forest Fire Management Officer Alex McBath said in an email.
The Lassen National Forest did thinning and burning on about 14,000 acres during the 2014-15 fiscal year, said forest spokeswoman Joyce El Kouarti.
But Forest Service officials have also complained for years they have been forced to take money intended for forest management programs such as thinning and control burns and use it for firefighting instead.
Each year Congress has allotted the Forest Service money for forest thinning, but as wildland fires have become larger and more destructive the agency has been forced to use prevention funds to fight fires.
Shasta-Trinity Forest spokeswoman Phyllis Swanson said other programs, such as recreation, also suffer.
However, attempts in Congress to change the way wildland fires are paid for have been stymied.
One bill, HR 167, would have allowed the Forest Service and other land management agencies to use emergency funds to pay for wildfire suppression, rather than prevention funds. But the bill did not get out of Congress.
The 2016 budget includes more money for firefighting and prevention, but it isn't enough, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture.
"While these funds are helpful, I am extremely disappointed that Congress did not enact a comprehensive fix to the wildland firefighting budget," Vilsack said in a letter to U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Appropriations Committee.
Vilsack said the cost of fighting wildfires consumed about 60 percent of the agency's budget in 2015.
Vilsack said this year he would not transfer money from prevention and other programs if the Forest Service uses up its firefighting budget.
"If the amount Congress appropriated in FY 2016 is not sufficient to cover fire suppression costs, Congress will need to appropriate additional funding on an emergency basis," Vilsack said in his letter.
The Record Searchlight asked candidates for the 1st Congressional District what they think needed to be done to address the issue. David Peterson, a Democrat from Placerville, did not return several phone messages.
Doug LaMalfa
The Republican incumbent said proper forest management would go a long way toward reducing catastrophic wildfires.
LaMalfa said he still supports HR 167, but he said there are other bills in Congress that would help spur forest clearing. He said he supported bills that would promote removing brush and smaller trees that could be used as biomass.
He supported measures that would help make biomass and thinning more profitable to companies.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has introduced a bill, SB 1294, that would establish a program where the U.S. Department of Energy would provide grants to projects that support innovation and market development of bioheat and biopower.
Biomass plants create electricity from burning forest waste, such as brush, limbs and smaller trees. Burning brush and smaller trees that can't be used for lumber at a biomass plant is better for the environment than a wildfire, LaMalfa.
"A power plant runs infinitely cleaner than a forest fire," LaMalfa said. He said forest thinning and biomass plans also create more jobs.
Gregory Cheadle
The Happy Valley Republican said forest management that increases thinning should be promoted, but he advocated increased participation from timber companies and other private firms.
Cheadle, a real estate broker, said government agencies should not be relied upon to come up with all the answers to problems in the forest, including fire suppression and fire prevention.
"As far as I'm concerned, the less government involvement the better," he said.
He also advocated policies that would provide incentives to suppressing fire, rather than letting them burn.
"The thing is, fire makes money," he said.
Joe Montes
The Chico businessman said Congress should pursue legislation that would entice private firms to do more forest thinning and management to reduce the intensity of wildfires.
He said if it were more profitable for firms to do forest thinning more of the work would get done.
Montes, a Republican, said he would also favor suspending regulations that stymie work done in the woods.
"I think there should be a suspension of environmental concerns," Montes said.
He said doing more thinning in the forest does more than just save lives and protect property. It also helps alleviate the effect of the drought. He said thinning allows rain and snow to get past the forest canopy to the ground, where water can percolate into the soil and recharge aquifers.
Jim Reed
The Red Bluff attorney said Congress needs to make fire prevention a higher priority because wildfires have become too intense and too large.
"If I am elected, I will talk my colleagues into spending more money on prevention," said Reed, a Democrat.
Money for fire prevention should be earmarked by Congress so it could not be taken and used to pay for other programs, such as fire suppression, he said.
Jeffrey Gerlach
He said fire danger could be reduced by doing more fire prevention, which would involve thinning out more brush and smaller trees.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," said Gerlach, a technology consultant from Lincoln.
He said in many places the forest is too thick, which allows fires to move quickly and hotter.
"These high intensity fires kill everything," he said.
Thick forests also prevent rainwater and snow from percolating to the ground and recharging groundwater.
Congress also needs to make it easier for forest management agencies and private companies to log in the forest and do thinning.
"The idea of hands off and nobody is allowed in there (the forest) is failing," he said.
He said doing forest thinning and management is cheaper than fighting fires. He also said he supports HR 4751, which, according to Gerlach, would have U.S. Bureau of Land Management and forest service officials focus more on forest management rather than law enforcement.
Gary Allen Oxley
The Republican emergency room nurse agreed with other candidates that the Forest Service needs to do more thinning to reduce the damage from forest fires.
But he suggested taking money the U.S. pays toward foreign aid programs such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund and instead use it for programs like forest thinning.
"We can't continue to pay for internationalism when we can't pay for our forests," he said. "It comes back to money and priorities."
The same is true for other overseas endeavors such as military bases. The United States needs to reduce the number of bases in other countries, which would free up money for domestic programs, including forest management.
He also recommended reducing the national debt to help pay for domestic programs.
"How do we pay for all these programs when we have all this debt hanging over our heads," Oxley said. "We are going down a path that is not sustainable."
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