The Biden administration will use $500 million to help protect communities affected by what it’s calling a wildfire crisis, which Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said is caused by climate change.
About $400 million will come from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will be directed to 21 designated priority areas. The remaining funds will be used for the U.S. Forest Service’s Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program.
The agriculture secretary said a “key component” of this work is Congress agreeing on a budget for fiscal year 2024, which is still in limbo with lawmakers facing deadlines for a partial government shutdown in early March.
“Without a budget, without an allocation and appropriation to continue to pay firefighters what has been provided to them under the pay increase that was authorized under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we risk losing key staff,” Mr. Vilsack said.
In 2023, more than 53,000 wildfires burned nearly 2.61 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The money is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expand the work of the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy. It will also help fund the administration’s Climate Resilience Framework to expand “community-driven resilience strategies.”
The new funds bring the total investment in this program to $2.4 billion.
“This is allowing us to begin to expand beyond the 21 priority areas into areas which we refer to as the ‘wildland-urban interface’,” Mr. Vilsack said on a press call this week. “This is going to allow us with $100 million to help build local capacity, to provide tools and resources so that we can provide these communities with assistance and help to reduce the risk of fire as it relates to their community.”
White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said the program is also about “mobilizing capital investments and innovation into tackling climate resilience at scale.”
“The Biden administration isn’t just deploying more resources, we’re deploying them more efficiently using technologies like artificial intelligence, leveraging data from satellites and working very vigorously through partners and partnerships,” he said.
The Wildfire Crisis Strategy covers more than one million acres across the 21 priority landscapes to help reduce wildfire risk for about 550 communities, 2,500 miles of power lines and 1,800 watersheds that supply drinking water.
The Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program allows for national forests, in collaboration with tribes, communities, and other partners in 24 states, to build local projects to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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