Davis Fire
Courtesy: Jon Yuspa

Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior Laura Daniel-Davis announced $236 million in funding allocations from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will support wildland fire management into fiscal year 2025.

The funding will help reduce risk from wildfires, support improved wildland firefighter training, expand efforts to rehabilitate burned areas in collaboration with partners, and advance wildfire science.

Today’s announcement brings the total the Department of the Interior has allocated for wildland fire management from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to nearly $1.1 billion across the nation since it went into effect in fiscal year 2022. 

"Since the enactment of the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Interior Department has worked quickly to get money out the door and in the hands of states, tribes and local communities to help combat the ever-growing threat of the climate crisis," said Acting Deputy Secretary Daniel-Davis.

The Department is dedicating nearly $176 million from today’s announcement to help reduce the risk of wildfires by expanding capacity and accelerating the pace and scale of fuel management projects, which reduce excessive vegetation that can fuel wildfires.

Nearly $56 million will be used to help restore landscapes damaged by recent wildfires. This includes over $20 million to continue developing locally adapted seeds and plant materials to revegetate areas so severely impacted by wildfires that the lands are unlikely to recover naturally.

Nearly $3.1 million will support the Department’s wildland fire workforce by continuing to modernize training and position qualifications. 

Today’s announcement also includes $1.4 million to advance wildfire science. The Joint Fire Science Program, funded by both the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture (USDA), will use this investment to further support research that will help inform how the interagency wildland fire community can best address the growing threat of wildfires amid a changing climate. 

The bipartisan infrastructure law also created the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, charged with making recommendations to improve federal policies related to the mitigation, suppression, and management of wildland fires in the United States.