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Georgia Forestry Commission warns of higher wildfire risk after Hurricane Helene; urges prescribed burning, firebreaks and equipment upgrades
Summary
Georgia Forestry Commission director Johnny Sabo described increased firefighting challenges after Hurricane Helene, cited response statistics, and urged expansion of prescribed burning, firebreak installation and equipment improvements for future wildland-fire seasons.
Johnny Sabo, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission, told the House Natural Resources & Environment Committee the agency is an emergency-response organization with a large wildland-fire mission and that Hurricane Helene's timber damage has increased fuel loads and changed firefighting tactics in affected areas.
Sabo said the commission has roughly 524 employees, about 400 of whom serve as emergency responders and wildland firefighters. He said last year Georgia recorded "a little over 2,600 wildfires," with an average response time of about 25 minutes and an average fire size near 5 acres. He described the Hurricane Helene response: crews cleared about 40,000 miles of roads and completed rapid timber-assessment plots to estimate damage, operations that Sabo said were completed without injuries.
Sabo said post-storm conditions — downed timber, increased sunlight to forest floors and accumulating fuels — have lengthened response times and complicated suppression tactics. He said a two-acre fire in impacted areas can take hours to control because debris and larger fuels slow equipment and crews. The commission is prioritizing proactive measures: prescribed fire (about 1.5 million acres burned last year), installation and maintenance of roughly 25,000 miles of firebreaks statewide, community wildfire protection plans, Firewise USA outreach and law-enforcement investigations into arson and timber theft.
The director stressed private landowners shoulder most of the cost of prescribed burning and that federal and state cost-share programs cover a small fraction of private burning costs. Sabo said the commission supports the governor's budget request for equipment upgrades to meet the altered fire environment in the hurricane-impacted area and noted specialized tractors and other machinery are needed for safe, effective line construction through heavy debris.
Committee members thanked the commission for storm response work and asked for additional briefings and materials; Sabo offered to return for a deeper dive on forestry operations and fire programs.
