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Fire Ecology

Table 1 Recent federal policies and funding initiatives for fire suppression, fire prevention, and prefire fuels mitigation

From: Review of fuel treatment effects on fuels, fire behavior and ecological resilience in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the Western U.S.

• National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy; USDA and USDOI 2014)—Established guidelines for wildfire response preparedness, improving vegetation and fuel management, facilitating prefire mitigation activities, and preventing human-caused ignitions. The Cohesive Strategy acknowledged that vegetation and fuel management was challenging because it involves designing and prioritizing the locations of fuel treatments not only to decrease fire risk, but also to meet resource objectives and improve the resilience of rangelands and forests

• An Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy (Rangeland Strategy; USDOI 2015)—developed in response to USDOI Secretary Order 3336, Rangeland Fire Prevention, Management and Restoration. The Rangeland Strategy emphasized protecting core habitat for Greater sage-grouse and building resilience to wildfire and resistance to invasive annual grasses. Key aspects include working at landscape scales, promoting collaboration across boundaries, and improving prevention, fire suppression, and ecosystem restoration

• The Wildfire Crisis Strategy (USDA Forest Service 2022) builds on the Cohesive Strategy and directs the Forest Service to work with partners to focus fuels and forest health treatments strategically and at appropriate scales using the best available science. Under the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, as many as 20 M acres of National Forest System lands and 30 M acres of other Federal, State, Tribal and private lands would be treated over the next 10 years. A range of fuels and forest management activities will be implemented, including mechanical thinning and prescribed fire, followed by maintenance treatments at intervals of 10 to 15 years

• The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA 2021) provides nearly $3 billion for hazardous fuel reductions and restoration, and the Forest Service’s landscape investment plan (USDA Forest Service 2022b) targets several watersheds in the sagebrush biome for fuel and fire management treatments

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