>> All right.

We leave it there.

Steven Deller thanks very much.

>> Thank you.

wildfires is a regular feature these days in Wisconsin.

According to current maps, there are 700 active wildfires in Canada, most of them categorized as out of control.

What's the risk of wildfires or forest fires in Wisconsin?

And could cuts in federal funding of the U.S. Forest Service?

If forest management in Wisconsin, we're joined now by James Barnier forest fire protection section chief for the Division of Forestry.

And thanks very much for being here.

>> Thank you.

>> So I know that the Wisconsin DNR also has these fire management dashboards online.

How has this year compared historically for wildfires in Wisconsin?

>> This year is fairly unique.

It was one of our more uncommon types of events.

We've had.

As you might remember, a drier than normal winter.

We saw a significant number of fires in January and February, which we traditionally don't see.

So those fires cause a lot of great a lot of work on our staff to be prepared, be ready.

Typically, when we're trying to get ready for our typical spring season, which is March, April and May.

And so that really took a toll on our staff overall from that working those two months earlier.

Traditionally, we see snowfall during that time frame.

>> Right.

>> So what are conditions like right now for fires in Wisconsin?

>> Well, to be honest, we're just starting to get back into some drought conditions.

We're starting to staff up again and just prepare for fires for the summer months.

>> When a fire breaks out.

What kind of fuels it spread?

>> Well, most of our fires are caused by people, and typically in the state of Wisconsin, most of our fires are wind driven, usually with low RH and higher temperatures, but mostly with wind.

And low RH is what we see drives most of our fires.

And that usually that light fuels that grass type fuels that would spread really fast.

And then once that gets ignited, the fire gets a lot bigger.

There's called ladder fuels.

Those ladder fuels get you know, get into the tops of the trees.

And then when you see those really significant type of crown fires.

>> So you have told us that it is not likely that Wisconsin would ever see fires like those in in Canada.

Why not?

>> Why wouldn't say we wouldn't see types of fires of that magnitude of 250,000 acres.

We probably wouldn't see that size of fires.

But we do see a lot of significant what I would say, catastrophic for the state of Wisconsin.

Anything between, you know, 3000 to, you know, 15,000 acres, those types of fires in the are common.

You know, every so often in the state of Wisconsin and have significant impacts across the state.

>> A number of DNR firefighters have been in Canada.

Tell me about that.

>> So we've sent up 20 people to both Ontario, and Manitoba.

And during that time frame in, they're actually fighting fires and working within that organization on their IMT incident management teams to help facilitate that.

So doing so, it is a significant event.

>> How much forest land does Wisconsin have and who's responsible for its management, fire prevention and firefighting.

>> Just in general, there's about 57% of the forested lands is privately owned and about another 10% industry owned.

And the rest is government entities.

And so we provide Wisconsin DNR, provide support with those landowners through, you know, sound forest management practices to provide some management plans for them or through, you know, industry working through industry foresters and ensuring that we have a good, solid forest, healthy forest to help limit those large scale fires.

>> So we know that state officials have concern about federal cuts to states from the U.S. Forest Service.

What role do the feds play in wildfire management?

>> They provide us a lot of funding sources.

So, yes, roughly a little over $2 million to support perspectives associated with wildfire preparedness.

And that where would that money go?

Well, we work heavily with our partners, local fire departments.

Our one of our key components within the state of Wisconsin.

And we provide grants to those to help facilitate responses to those fires.

Also for our needs, for our training responsibilities, our tools, our resources, and even some of our funding of our positions.