We’re a few months away from a very dangerous wildfire season in the Western United States.

• The usually wet Northwest was practically parched this winter, when weather conditions diverted most of the rainstorms that usually rake the area south to California.

• The Colorado Plateau is several years into a drought more severe than any in centuries.

• California’s ample winter rains probably delayed the state’s fire season, but there will be ample dried-out tinder when the Santa Ana winds blow in the fall.

But instead of gearing up with increased firefighting power, the California and federal governments are dropping their guards.

The federally contracted air tanker fleet is in utter disarray. And budget cuts brought on by California’s fiscal deficit threaten to reduce the state’s aerial firefighting readiness.

An Oakland Tribune investigation found that just seven of the federal government’s usual 33 contracted air tankers will be mechanically sound enough to fly this summer. The rest of the decades-old, military-surplus bombers that drop fire retardant on forest fires have been grounded by safety concerns following several crashes. In a 2002 incident that killed three men, for example, the wings snapped off a C-130 air tanker in midair above Mono County.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s demand this week that the federal government get an effective firefighting fleet back in the air is fully justified. She called on the U.S. Interior and Agriculture departments to find solutions to the problems that led to the cancellation of contracts with several private operators of the old tankers.

The U.S. Forest Service said it is offsetting the loss of the big tankers with small, crop duster-type planes and helicopters. That’s good, but more than seven tankers will be needed this summer and fall.

Most Western states cannot afford their own fleets and rely completely upon the federal airplanes. California has its own fleet but still depends heavily upon federal tankers – a fifth of the state’s land is owned by the U.S. government.

Unlike the federal government, which has allowed its planes to age beyond the point of safety, California modernized its firefighting fleet after crashes in the early 1990s. California’s planes are newer, smaller and more agile than the federally contracted tankers.

But Jim Wright, director of the state Department of Forestry, told legislators that his department would have to ground about three of its 23 planes each day this summer to save about $1 million.

That’s not acceptable.

Under pressure, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s aides said they were looking for ways to increase their proposed budget for CDF. Republican lawmakers – many of whom represent the suburbs and exurbs that press up against forests – and Democrats alike are demanding it.

Taxpayers simply would not forgive the governor and the Legislature if cuts in such a crucial safety program – and one that Schwarzenegger vowed to beef up after the killer fires of 2003 – contributed to another disaster.