The Forest Service is getting nearly $500 million to help fight the wildfire crisis. Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the investment this week, aimed at expanding the agency’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy before catastrophic fires reach communities bordering national forest land.The agency will spend roughly $400 million – funded through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – on the 21 priority landscapes it has already identified across the West as the places most likely to burn hot and burn hard. Another $100 million funds something newer: the Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program, which brings tribes, local communities, and partner organizations into the planning process across 24 states before the work begins.
For years, wildfire funding meant the Forest Service showing up with a plan already written. This round puts the people who live in those places first in the process. Whether that speeds up the work on California’s priority landscapes – the places most of us spend our weekends in – is the thing to watch over the next couple of fire seasons.
Money doesn’t put out fires by itself. But it’s the difference between a forest that gets thinned before August and one that doesn’t.
More info: USDA Forest Service (fs.usda.gov)