The Biden-Harris Administration is investing nearly $500 million from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expand work on the USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy to reduce risk to communities, critical infrastructure and natural resources from the nation’s ongoing wildfire crisis, which is exacerbated by climate change.
These funds bring the total investment in this comprehensive strategy to an historic $2.4 billion thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The announcement also advances the Administration’s National Climate Resilience Framework to help expand and accelerate nationally comprehensive, locally tailored, and community-driven resilience strategies.
Approximately $400 million of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds will be allocated to ongoing efforts on the 21 designated priority landscapes identified in the strategy, making the total investment to date $1.6 billion. An additional $100 million will be allocated under a new program established by the Forest Service - the Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program - to expand work outside these landscapes. Inspired by past example and success of programs such as the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, the new program expands work in high-risk wildfire areas outside the 21 priority landscapes.
The Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program will use hazardous fuels funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to treat areas outside the 21 priority landscapes in high-risk wildfire areas where national forests and grasslands meet homes and communities, known as the Wildland-Urban Interface. The program allows national forests, in collaboration with Tribes, communities and partners in 24 qualifying states, to build local capacity for projects to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health to protect communities, infrastructure, water quality and adjacent landowners.
This announcement is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to increase the resilience of lands facing the threat of catastrophic wildland fires and to better support federal wildland firefighters. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included $1.4 billion for the USDA Forest Service in wildfire risk reduction funds. The Inflation Reduction Act provided an additional $1.8 billion to reduce the risk of wildfire to neighborhoods, infrastructure, watersheds, and the many other benefits forests provide. All these investments will help strengthen long-term fire preparedness, reduce catastrophic wildland fire risk across states, and invest in supporting the wildland firefighter workforce.
