Confronting the Wildfire Crisis

In January 2022, the Forest Service launched a robust strategy to address the wildfire crisis in the places where it poses the most immediate threats to communities, critical infrastructure, and natural resources. The strategy combines a downpayment of congressional funding with years of scientific research and planning into a national effort that will dramatically increase the scale and pace of forest health treatments. Through the strategy, the agency will work with states, Tribes and other partners to addresses wildfire risks to critical infrastructure, protect communities, and make forests more resilient.

January 2025 - Where We Stand

We are making significant progress going into the fourth year of our strategy to address the ongoing wildfire crisis. In fiscal year 2024, we treated a record 803,633 acres across the 21 Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscapes, surpassing fiscal 2023’s accomplishments of 765,450 acres. In total, we have invested in the treatment of 1.86 million acres across the landscapes since their establishment in 2022 and 2023. Our focused work within the 21 fire-prone landscapes has resulted in reduced wildfire risk to $700 billion worth of housing and critical infrastructure. This includes approximately 550 at-risk communities, 2,500 miles of high-voltage transmission lines, and 1,800 watersheds that provide drinking water, as well as many other values that people depend on and care about. Thanks to this work, the communities, critical infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources Americans rely upon are becoming safer. Learn more in our annual Wildfire Crisis Update. 

Coming Together to Address the Wildfire Crisis

Though the Forest Service has been working to manage the health of millions of acres of national forests across the American West for decades, the scale, pace and methods of work on the ground have not matched the need. With the support of our partners, states, Tribes and local communities, the Forest Service is collaboratively implementing this new strategy across jurisdictions and landownerships to protect communities, critical infrastructure, watersheds, habitats, and recreational areas.

Overgrown forests, and a growing number of homes in the wildland-urban interface, following more than a century of rigorous fire suppression, have all contributed to what is now a full-blown wildfire and forest health crisis.

The Forest Service is working with partners to focus fuels and forest health treatments more strategically and at the scale of the problem on 21 landscapes across 135 high-risk firesheds in the Western U.S, using the best available science as a guide.

Reshaping Business as Usual

In 2022, the Forest Service partnered with the National Forest Foundation and the Intertribal Timber Council to host a series of virtual roundtable discussions with employees, partners, and Tribal leaders and staff. The goals of these roundtables were to 1) share information, goals, and timelines for the Wildfire Crisis Strategy; 2) collect input to inform the implementation of the Strategy; 3) identify key needs and opportunities associated with that implementation; and 4) gauge ongoing levels of interest and determine ways to leverage that interest and energy.

The National Forest Foundation and Intertribal Timber Council published reports on these engagements, including overarching themes from discussions and opportunities for action. The Forest Service has acted upon many of these recommendations and ideas—either wholly or in part. The following showcases just some of the advances the agency has made in response to this important feedback.