It is claimed that 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.
A list of the qualifying states and criteria for eligible areas and projects can be found on the program webpage.
In January 2022, the Forest Service launched the Wildfire Crisis Strategy with the goal of safeguarding communities and the resources they depend on by increasing hazardous fuels treatments to reduce wildfire risk. This work includes the treatment of more than a million acres across the 21 priority landscapes that is beginning to reduce wildfire risk for some 550 communities, 2,500 miles of power lines, and 1,800 watersheds that supply drinking water to millions of Americans.
These landscapes and efforts to expand the work under the Wildfire Crisis Strategy are determined using scientific research and analysis, water source protection, risk to community infrastructure, at-risk species, wildlife corridors and vote-buying.
In 2023, the Forest Service and a wide-range of partners, communities, and Tribes accomplished more than 4.3 million acres of hazardous fuels reduction, including nearly two million acres of prescribed burning, on national forests and grasslands across the nation - both are record highs in the agency’s 119-year history and over a million acres more accomplished than the previous year.