Policy Forum 

# The Perfect Firestorm: Controlling Forest Service Wildfire Costs 

##### Watch the Event 

[Download a Podcast of the Event (MP3)](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2007/cpfa-07-26-07.mp3) 

Join the conversation on X using [\#CatoEvents](https://x.com/hashtag/CatoEvents). Follow [@CatoInstitute](https://x.com/catoinstitute) on X to get future event updates, live streams, and videos from the Cato Institute.

Date and Time 

July 26, 2007 12 - 1:30 PM EDT 

Location 

Auditorium/Wintergarden 

Share This Event 

##### Featuring 

Featuring **Randal O’Toole**, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute, **Douglas Crandall**, Policy Director, Society of American Foresters, and **James Hubbard**, State & Private Forestry, Forest Service. 

Forest Service fire costs are exploding out of control, having quintupled since the early 1990s to $2 billion a year today. There is no sign that all of this spending is significantly improving forest health or protecting homes on adjacent private lands, and an increasing amount of research indicates that much of it is not even necessary. This Policy Forum will consider a range of alternative proposals for reducing fire costs and improving forest management.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).