Post Fire Recovery Environmental Assessment

seeding stands in burned area of forest — A seedling, one of 71,000 planted in 2026, grows on the Mendocino National Forest in California. The plantings are in an area affected by the 2018 Ranch Fire. The recently adopted national environmental post-fire assessment is intended to help forest managers assess damage and plan for recovery before the window of success closes. (Forest Service photo by Andrew Avitt)

A remedy for faster post-fire recovery

Severe wildfires are more frequent, burn larger areas more severely and last longer. At the same time, after emergency hazard mitigation has transitioned to post-fire recovery planning and execution, results could take years.

This is important because once the embers of a wildfire cool, the race begins to assess damage and plan for recovery before the window of success closes.

After a wildfire is contained, the agency transitions from fire suppression to an immediate burned area emergency response that prioritizes human life and safety, property, and natural and heritage resources. What follows is an assessment of fire damage that sets in motion restoration actions needed.

The Forest Service routinely develops post-fire recovery projects and conducts individual reviews for these projects. An agency review of more than 50 post-fire recovery assessments found that, regardless of location, many projects occurred in a relatively similar manner and had similar environmental effects across a suite of post-fire activities.

In June 2026, the agency adopted a national post-fire recovery environmental assessment that acts as a guide for forest and grassland mangers to address hazards more quickly. These activities include such actions as mechanical and non-mechanical hazardous fuels reduction, hazardous tree removal, timber harvest, reforestation, and use of natural materials to restore water and soil systems.

This condition-based management approach, which does not assign specific post-fire recovery activities to specific sites, assigns activities to a set of conditions that occur on the landscape. Once an interdisciplinary team identifies these conditions, they determine the appropriate post-fire recovery activities consistent with the activities and effects analyzed by the national environmental assessment.

The national assessment document does not authorize, fund, or carry out site-specific actions. Any site-specific considerations—such as supplemental analysis, design criteria, mitigation measures, or findings—will be provided for in project-specific decisions and, when necessary, supplemental environmental assessments or other analyses. Projects also must align with existing forest plans and comply with applicable laws and regulations.

This work also will help responsible officials determine whether proposed activities may be significant enough for more work to prepare an environmental impact statement.

For employees, the assessment is a sort of user manual on how to develop the proposed action at the project level and what processes to follow. An employee user roadmap includes compliance checklists and templates.

The National Post-Fire Environmental Assessment is written specifically for post-fire projects and is not authorized or intended to be used for other purpose.

The national post-fire environmental assessment and supporting documents are available online.