On January 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Forest Service announced a 10-year, multibillion-dollar plan to address and reduce the risk of wildfires across 50 million acres of the U.S.
High-risk areas across 11 Western states—including the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada range in California, the Front Range in Colorado, and the Southwest— will be prioritized.
The Forest Service will reportedly be taking into account areas that were historically underserved or are essential for water, carbon, and wildlife.
Under the plan, the government will quadruple land health treatment efforts, such as prescribed fires and thinning of useless or dead underbrush, and work with communities to invest in fire adaption and post-fire recovery.
The bipartisan infrastructure law will provide $3 billion to begin the work, though it’s expected to cost approx $50 billion to cover 50 million acres. While this initiative isn’t expected to stop forest fires, the hope is that it will decrease the destruction wrought by them.
In the past 20 years, wildfires have been growing in size and duration; 2021 saw one of the largest fires in Oregon’s history and the second largest in California’s.
Researchers believe that this is in part due to the climate crisis, which has led to high temperatures and intense droughts.
However, they also note that previous fire suppression rules, which called for extinguishing every fire despite the size, have led to an accumulation of fuel from dead vegetation.
The Forest Service says it will create another plan to maintain healthy forests when this 10-year plan expires.
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