LANDER - The Bighorn National Forest was forced to transfer more than $500,000 from its operating budget into the national firefighting kitty this summer, said Forest Supervisor Bill Bass.

The Bighorn's total budget this year was about $7.3 million, Bass said, of which $540,000 went to the emergency fire transfer in August. Of that total, about $300,000 came from the forest's construction and maintenance budget.

Bass admitted that losing the money was "disheartening," because it "puts you in a reactive mode," he said.

"It probably hit my construction and maintenance programs the hardest, including deferred maintenance on infrastructure," Bass said. "We had to forgo construction of a trail bridge and a seasonal bunkhouse and the restoration of an administration facility."

Other seasonal projects had to be put off another year, such as replacing unusable picnic table tops, doing roof repairs and completing paint jobs, he said.

The Bighorn National Forest also wasn't able to pay seasonal employees overtime this summer, and hence was unable to have staff at the visitor center seven days a week, he said.

"I anticipate we're going to have to deal with this on a yearly basis," Bass said. "I don't foresee relief. My anticipation is next year it'll be bigger. The trends in wildfire are not going down, and funding trends are stable, at best, over a 10-year average, which means they've been declining in terms of inflation. I'm expecting the hit to be bigger next year."

The Shoshone National Forest contributed about $660,000 to the wildfire transfer this summer, or about 5 percent of it $13.5 million budget, said Susie Douglas, spokeswoman for the forest.

As was the case with the Bighorn, the bulk of the money was pulled from seasonal construction and maintenance projects, she said.

"Some examples are trail maintenance, replacing toilets, making water system improvements, road repair, culvert repair, upgrades to electrical systems and these kinds of maintenance things were deferred," Douglas said.

On most of the Shoshone National Forest there is a three- or four-month window in which maintenance and construction projects can be completed, she said, and the rest of the time the forest tends to be socked in with snow.

"If we can't get it done when the weather cooperates, it could be nine, 10 months before we get back to it," Douglas said. "It's unfortunate wildfire season just happens to coincide with when we get most of our work done."

The cutbacks on the Shoshone didn't affect any public services, and no campgrounds were closed this summer, she said, adding, "We're pretty proud about that."