Forest Service Investments to Help Reduce Wildfire Risk

The USDA is investing $100 million in 21 new projects to expand work on the USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The goal is to reduce the threat of wildfires in high-risk areas of the country.

Forest Service Chief Randy Moore says there’s more of a need than ever to reduce the risks of wildfires.

“We have a lot of communities that are at higher risk these days. The difference that we can make is on treating landscapes to match the scale of the disturbance or the activities taking place today. For example, when we go out and treat a landscape, we're looking at what is the value of that landscape and here again we use the 21 landscapes as an example. The Secretary had mentioned earlier, these 21 landscapes, we have about $700 billion worth of value there. We have 500 communities. We have 2500 miles of power lines. We have about the 1,800 priority watersheds. When you look at the value of that, that's seven. $700 billion worth of value.”

The Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program uses hazardous fuels funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to treat additional areas of high wildfire risk 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 qualifying states, to build local capacity for projects to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health.

Source: NAFB