Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program
The Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program enables national forests, in collaboration with tribes, communities, and partners, to reduce wildfire risk to communities, critical infrastructure, and natural resources. With funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to address hazardous fuels, the Forest Service is investing in 21 projects across 14 states.
The program supports new, expanded efforts under the Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The funding was awarded to projects after an internal, competitive process. To be eligible for the program, the projects had to be located:
on National Forest System lands,
outside of the existing Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscapes,
within the wildland-urban interface, and
in areas with either very high wildfire hazard potential or within a high-risk fireshed.
The projects funded through the program were collaboratively designed and will be implemented with the help of partners. In addition to on-the-ground forest restoration work such as mechanical thinning and prescribed fire, the projects support crucial surveys, workforce development, and public engagement that enable future wildfire risk reduction efforts.
Funded Projects by State
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Breckenridge Community and Communication Site Fuels Reduction Located in the Sequoia National Forest, this project aims to reduce wildfire risk to the Breckenridge and Pine Flat communities, as well as communications sites. The forested area around these communities and infrastructure is densely loaded with hazardous fuels after a multi-year drought killed many trees. With help from partners, efforts will include thinning and prescribed fire, with wood byproducts going to a biomass facility or the local sawmill when viable. | Sequoia National Forest | $5,000,000 |
| Hazardous Fuels Reduction, Strategic Fuel Breaks, and Prescribed Fire for Wildfire Resiliency on the Georgetown Divide This multi-phase project will use mastication and prescribed fire to restore forest health in the Georgetown Divide region of the Eldorado National Forest. This region is facing hazardous fuel loading within forest stands that are increasingly at risk to drought, insects, disease, and high-severity wildfire. The project will also create strategic fuel breaks near residential and commercial infrastructure in Volcanoville and Georgetown, including a high-powered electric transmission line. Collectively, these efforts will help restore fire-adapted ecosystems, lower wildfire risk to communities and critical infrastructure, and improve wildfire response and ingress and egress routes. | Eldorado National Forest | $5,000,000 |
| Tahoe National Forest Resilient Communities and Partner Capacity Building Using mechanized and hand equipment to thin vegetation, this project will reduce hazardous fuels, create defensible space around six communities, create safe ingress and egress along 6.3 miles of road, and engage at least seven partner groups, including local tribes. The project area is in a section of the Tahoe National Forest with dense vegetation, steep slopes, and high rates of tree mortality adjacent to developed infrastructure. The efforts in this project will complement and connect the wildfire risk reduction efforts in the nearby Wildfire Crisis Strategy’s North Yuba Landscape. | Tahoe National Forest | $5,000,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Durango, Colorado Fireshed – Wildfire Risk Reduction and Restoration This project will reduce wildfire risk and restore forest health through 3,000 acres of initial mechanical treatments that will enable 9,000 acres of future prescribed fire follow up treatments in the San Juan National Forest. These efforts will take place in the Durango High-Risk Fireshed, which is facing a very high to extreme wildfire hazard. This fireshed includes the City of Durango, Southern Ute Tribal Land, and the Florida River municipal watershed—all of which are at increased risk due to hazardous fuels buildup. The efforts to reduce this increased risk will be accomplished in collaboration with many partners ranging from non-governmental organizations to government and Tribal entities. | San Juan National Forest | $5,000,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Lowman Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Aquatic Habitat Restoration This investment will support commercial timber harvests, non-commercial thinning, prescribed fire, and aquatic restoration work in the Boise National Forest—all of which will begin to restore forest health and reduce wildfire risk to local communities, electric infrastructure, and natural resources. This work will be implemented with the help of several partners and is focused on Lowman Ranger District. | Boise National Forest | $4,056,984 |
| Municipal Watershed to Panther Creek Project This multi-faced project in the Salmon-Challis National Forest is designed to reduce risk of wildfire impacts to the City of Salmon and a critical utility power line, provide wood products, create strategic fuel breaks, restore critical endangered species fish habitat, restore aspen, provide wildlife habitat, and in doing so, protect and enhance multiple social and economic values. This project is part of a broader 600,000-acre collaborative effort to reduce wildfire risk and restore forest health along a 50-mile corridor that contains high-risk firesheds. | Salmon-Challis National Forest | $4,773,750 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Clinch River District Fire and Fuels Vegetation Management This investment will enable a mix of forest restoration efforts, project and risk mitigation planning, community engagement and collaboration, and workforce capacity building in the Clinch River Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. The project area is characterized by rough mountainous terrain, dispersed communities and inholdings, and historic coal mining legacy impacts. | George Washington and Jefferson National Forests | $4,992,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Kawishiwi Collaborative Fuels Reduction Project This project will restore forest health and reduce wildfire risk in portions of the Superior National Forest’s Kawishiwi Ranger District. The project area contains overly dense forests with high wildfire risk in areas of limited access, making wildfires more intense and more difficult to manage. The project includes reducing hazardous fuels through mechanical and prescribed fire treatments, creating strategic fuel breaks, improving access, and bolstering planning efforts. | Superior National Forest | $5,000,000 |
| LaCroix Collaborative Fuels Reduction Project This project will restore forest health and reduce wildfire risk in portions of the Superior National Forest’s LaCroix Ranger District. The project area includes forests that have had over 100 years of fire suppression, that when combined with climate change is driving more frequent, more severe, and larger wildfires. The project includes reducing hazardous fuels through mechanical and prescribed fire treatments, creating strategic fuel breaks, and improving access. Much of the work will be completed through partnerships, including with the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. | Superior National Forest | $5,000,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| De Soto Ranger District Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration This project will begin to restore longleaf pine forest health in areas of the De Soto Ranger District around urbanized and other developed areas. Using mechanical thinning, prescribed fire, and other tools, tree density will be reduced, and longleaf pine stands will be restored. These efforts will dovetail into similar ongoing efforts, resulting in landscape-level stewardship. Wildfire severity will also be reduced, allowing wildfires to be managed more easily and safely. | National Forests in Mississippi | $5,000,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Bozeman Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Project Building off a previous Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Program project, this new project will continue reducing wildfire risk and restoring forest health in the Custer Gallatin National Forest around the growing City of Bozeman. Bozeman’s drinking water supply comes from the national forest, and a high-severity wildfire could endanger the city’s water supplies. Through thinning, commercial timber harvest, pile burning, and related activities, this project will reduce wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface and protect watershed health. This project will also generate economic benefits to the local community and reduce wildfire risk to critical infrastructure and highly visited recreation areas. | Custer Gallatin National Forest | $4,791,500 |
| West Zone Heavy Fuels This project will reduce a hazardous level of dead and down trees in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest through mechanical thinning, mastication, and prescribed fire. The project area is facing above-average hazardous fuels after pine beetle outbreaks killed significant amounts of trees. The efforts to reduce these hazardous fuels will reduce the wildfire risk to communities, private landowners, critical infrastructure, and other valued assets, such as the Tenmile municipal watershed which supplies drinking water to 40,000 people within the greater Helena area. | Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest | $3,333,511 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Gila Priority Landscape – NFF Hazardous Fuels Reduction This investment enables efforts to reduce hazardous fuels and restore ecosystem health in grasslands and ponderosa pine forests in the Gila National Forest. In addition to restoring ecosystem health in degraded areas, these efforts will improve watershed health and resiliency, provide economic benefits and employment opportunities, and provide fuelwood to underserved communities in Catron County. | Gila National Forest | $2,100,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Croatan Fireshed Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program Project One year ago, the Great Lakes Fire rapidly spread through the Croatan National Forest and burned 32,400 acres in a few days—posing a significant risk to homes and the City of New Bern. On the heels of this incident, this project aims to reduce the pressing wildfire risk in the Croatan National Forest through hazardous fuels reduction treatments, public outreach and education, and capacity building. | Croatan National Forest | $4,950,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Elk Tribal and Community Healthy Forest Restoration Project This project will restore forest health using prescribed fire and construct strategic fuel breaks in the Elk Creek Watershed of the Umpqua National Forest. This watershed is a patchwork of private, Tribal, and Federal lands with several underserved communities. Building on existing collaboration between the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and the Forest Service, this project will continue ecosystem restoration efforts while expanding collaboration with the Tribe, the Oregon Department of Forestry, and other partners. | Umpqua National Forest | $4,890,000 |
| Grayback Creek Watershed Ecological Restoration and Wildfire Risk Reduction Project This investment will support strategic planning and forest restoration efforts, community engagement and collaboration, and workforce development in a critically important landscape of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The project area is in a landscape with conifer forests that have mostly not experienced wildfire in at least 125 years, leading to critically high levels of dead and live vegetation and high departures in forest structure and composition. The efforts in this project will help reduce wildfire risk, link together both past and future landscape restoration projects, and support local communities through collaborative engagement and workforce development. | Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest | $4,400,000 |
| Sufferin Springs NEPA Heritage Surveys This investment will support critical heritage surveys that will enable completion of the Sufferin Springs Project environmental analysis in the La Grande Ranger District of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Once the environmental analysis is completed, work could begin to restore forest health, reduce wildfire risk to natural resources and communities, and provide economic benefits to the local economy. | Wallowa-Whitman National Forest | $132,722 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Cherokee National Forest Unaka and Watauga Ranger Districts CWRRP Vegetation Management Treatment Project This project will restore forest health through prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, controlling invasive species, and creating shaded fuel breaks. The forests in the Cherokee National Forest have become overly dense and shaded due to fire suppression, leading to the disappearance of open, fire-maintained ecosystems with high biodiversity. Through working with partners to thin vegetation and reintroduce fire, this project will improve ecosystem health and wildlife habitat while lowering wildfire risk. | Cherokee National Forest | $3,071,967 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Tribal Co-Stewardship and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Project This investment will be used to conduct cultural resource surveys, develop traditional ecological knowledge recommendations for management, and promote Tribal youth engagement on approximately 5,000 acres of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area that is ceded lands of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Funding would go directly to Tribes, tribal staff, and tribal affiliated businesses. These efforts will help foster co-stewardship of fire-adapted ecosystems that have been home to Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. | Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area | $345,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Snowy Range Project This project will reduce wildfire risk and restore forest health in the northern Snowy Range of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, west of Laramie. Efforts include targeted hazardous fuels reduction—such as mechanical thinning, mastication, and pile burning—in areas that build upon and connect existing and planned efforts on National Forest System, State, and BLM lands. In addition to providing economic benefits and reducing wildfire risk to communities and natural resources, this project will supply firewood to the Northern Arapaho Tribe through the Wood For Life partnership. | Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests & Thunder Basin National Grassland | $5,000,000 |
| Project | National Forest | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire & Resources Management Work Force Development: Capacity Building for Underrepresented Communities Having a robust, diverse workforce trained in wildfire and resource management is crucial to meeting the needs of the Nation. This project will help build and expand this workforce through investing in partnerships at select universities, non-profit organizations, Job Corps programs, and more. This investment will enable intern hiring, skills training, residential experiences, student and community engagement, and more for Tribal and underrepresented communities. | Multiple | $2,108,156 |
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Imagery
Supporting Wildfire Crisis Strategy imagery is available in our Flickr gallery.
*Forest Service photos are public domain; please credit “USDA Forest Service” upon re-publication.