On Tuesday, Secretary Vilsack announced nearly $500 million to expand work on the USDA Forest Service Wildfire Crisis Strategy. This investment in our Wildfire Crisis Strategy will help us continue to reduce risk to communities, critical infrastructure and natural resources from our nation’s ongoing wildfire crisis.  

These funds bring the total investment in this comprehensive strategy to a historic $2.4 billion thanks to both Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding. The work these investments fund advances and accelerates nationally comprehensive, locally tailored and community-driven resilience strategies.

I am proud of the record-setting pace and scale of the work accomplished by Forest Service employees, partners, tribes and communities. Approximately $400 million of the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds will be allocated to ongoing efforts on 21 priority landscapes across the West. This work helps reduce wildfire risk for 550 communities, 2,500 miles of power lines and 1,800 watersheds.

An additional $100 million will be allocated through a collaborative process with tribes, communities and partners as part of new agency-established program—the Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program. Inspired by past examples and the success of programs such as the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, this new program expands work in high-risk wildfire areas outside the 21 priority landscapes.

Thank you for your hard work and dedication. Every one of us plays a part in this historic effort. This investment shows us that the public trusts us to deliver results. This is the core of our mission to sustain the health and diversity of the nation’s forests. This is what we’ve been working toward for so long together.

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