Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.

    In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires—nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect, fewer federal funds today are going toward the agency’s other work—such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep—that affects the lives of all Americans.

    Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?

    “It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says. “We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, ‘Wait a minute, is this OK?’ Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?”

    Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.

    For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change—how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.

    While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.

    “The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways,” he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to “an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.”

    At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But acknowledging fire’s inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.

    “We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says. “It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.”

答案精析：根据题干中的wildfires和in 2015可定位至文章第二段第一句。根据定位句可知，美国森林管理局将过半的年度预算用于消防工作，这一比例是20年前的两倍，并且这一花费之高是首次出现的情况。由此可知，花费在火灾上的预算百分比发到了历史最高值。因此选择B项。

错项排除：第二段第一句提到的for the first time，第二段第二句中的management确实在A项中有所体现，但这属于细节拼凑，原文并没有说到此项内容，因此排除A项。第一段出现western states和ecology，但前者说的是野火通常被视为西部各州的问题，而后者指莫里兹的身份（火灾生态学专家），因此C项为断章取义，故排除。原文第二段最后一句说到infrastructure upkeep（基础设施维护）问题，但这里说的是对此项花费更少了（fewer federal funds），与D项内容不符，因此D项错误。