WASHINGTON — Excessive wildfire suppression costs forced the U.S. Forest Service to put off major projects in Oregon in 2012 and 2013, including several designed to protect fish habitats.

Under the current funding regime, both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management must borrow from other accounts once they have exhausted their funds allotted for fighting wildfires. This means other projects are delayed or canceled when their funding is spent during heavy fire seasons.

The Forest Service outlined some consequences of this approach in “Fire Transfer Impact by State,” a report it released Monday,

In Oregon, this meant that repairs to multiple roads and culverts, needed to keep sediment out of fish habitats, were deferred last year. Hundreds of thousands of dollars meant to improve visitors’ experiences of public lands, including a $141,000 replacement of the water system at the Timberline Lodge on the Mt. Hood National Forest, didn’t happen.

In 2012, more than $170,000 in upgrades to trails were put off, and an $84,000 project to design a strategy to improve forest resilience was canceled.

“With longer and more severe wildfire seasons, the current way that the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Interior budget for wildland fire is unsustainable,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a prepared statement. “Until firefighting is treated like other natural disasters that can draw on emergency funding, firefighting expenditures will continue to disrupt forest restoration and management, research, and other activities that help manage our forests and reduce future catastrophic wildfire.”

Earlier this year, the Obama administration proposed changing the way the federal government pays for wildfire costs. Under the new policy, costs incurred fighting the most devastating wildfires — the top 1 percent of the largest fires consume 30 percent of the federal wildfire budget — would be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, much the same way the agency provides funds to deal with other natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

The plan mirrors legislative proposals in Congress to restructure wildfire suppression funds, including a Senate bill by Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, both D-Ore., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Oregon Reps. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, and Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, have both introduced similar legislation in the House.

Under the current wildfire suppression plan, agencies project their annual fire costs by taking the average of the previous 10 years.

Between 2004 and 2013, both the Department of Interior’s and the Forest Service’s wildfire costs exceeded the 10-year average seven times. When those funds run out, agencies are forced to use funds allocated for other purposes. While Congress often backfills those accounts, work on other projects like hazardous fuels reduction intended to mitigate the damage caused by future fires, can be thrown off schedule.

In April, the BLM and Forest Service warned that their fire suppression costs could run as much as $1 billion over budget, although the projected overrun will likely be closer to $470 million.

On Monday, President Obama spoke via teleconference with participants at the meeting of the Western Governors Association in Colorado Springs. According to the White House, they discussed the outlook for the current fire season, including existing drought conditions.

Obama and other administration officials pledged to continue to use the best-available science to aid in preparedness and response operations, modernizing wildland firefighting resources like airtankers, and efforts to build resilience to fires by restoring landscapes and forests, according to the White House’s account of the meeting.

— Reporter: 202-662-7456, aclevenger@bendbulletin.com