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Arizona forester: inmate crews, mitigation and scaling state capacity to meet growing wildfire risk
Summary
Tom Torres, Arizona state forester, described Arizona’s growth in personnel and mitigation work, including use of inmate crews, exclusive aviation contracts, Good Neighbor Authority projects and a target of 40,000 treated acres per year.
Tom Torres, director of the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management and Arizona’s state forester, told Wyoming legislators that Arizona has expanded firefighting personnel and mitigation capacity in recent years and relies heavily on multiple staffing models including inmate crews.
Torres said Arizona now employs about 260 people (up from 88 in 2020) and averages roughly 2,000 fires per year, burning about 450,000 acres annually across jurisdictions. In 2024 he said his department recorded roughly 2,160 fires, 280,000 acres burned and about $21,000,000 in state spending.
Why it matters: Torres’ presentation highlighted how states with complex land ownership and large national forest footprints…
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