Pete HahnloserIn the midst of another active wildfire season, the Department of the Interior is allocating $236 million to support wildland fire management nationwide through fiscal year 2025. Goals include reducing wildfire risk, improving wildland firefighter training, boosting efforts to rehabilitate burned areas in partnership with others and the furthering of wildfire science.
The announcement comes during a U.S. wildfire season that has burned more acreage to date than in any year since 2018. The National Interagency Fire Center’s daily update on Tuesday showed 62 active large fires – none of which is contained – have consumed nearly 1.5 million acres.
Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis announced the news at Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Ariz., alongside local and state officials. Arizona is set to receive over $10 million, bringing the total funding for wildfire mitigation and recovery in the state to more than $60 million through the BIL.
The department is allocating nearly $176 million to reduce the risk of severe wildfires across various climate types by increasing capacity and speeding up fuels management mitigation. These projects will work to remove excessive plant life that fuels wildfires through mechanical vegetation removal and chemical treatments of invasive species.
Part of the funding will go toward expanding the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center, offering wildland fire training and hands-on experience in fire management such as prescribed burns and cultural burning.
Almost $56 million will go toward restoring landscapes affected by recent wildfires. This includes more than $20 million for the ongoing development of regionally-adapted seeds and other plant materials to revegetate areas severely damaged by wildfires where natural recovery is unlikely. This effort is part of the National Native Seed Strategy Keystone Initiative, which focuses on ensuring an adequate supply of native seeds and plants to restore and improve ecosystem resilience.
Another $3 million will be dedicated to supporting Interior’s wildland fire workforce by modernizing training and job qualifications to offer updated courses, expand opportunities for hands-on experience and lower qualification barriers. The Joint Fire Science Program will use $1.4 million to advance wildfire science by supporting research that will address increasing wildfire threats in the context of climate change.
Photo by Malachi Brooks on Unsplash
