In January 2022, the Forest Service responded to the wildfire crisis in the West by launching our Wildfire Crisis Strategy. Building on the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and our agreements with States and other partners under our Shared Stewardship investment strategy, the Wildfire Crisis Strategy calls for a new paradigm: stepping up the pace and scale of our fuels and forest health treatments to match the actual scale of wildfire risk.

We created a national team to work with Tribes and with Federal, State, local, and private partners in crafting a 10-year Wildfire Crisis Implementation Plan for the Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The plan—a blueprint for executing the strategy through partnerships—is based on peer-reviewed research and a framework for collaboration established over the past 20 years. Under the plan, we are working with our partners to focus our fuels and forest health treatments more strategically and at the scale of the problem, using the best available science as our guide.

Based on a fireshed analysis, our scientists have models for identifying the firesheds most in need of fuels and forest health treatments to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. Scientific research guides the treatments needed to reduce the risk, including mechanically thinning trees and conducting prescribed fires. We estimate that up to 50 million acres of State, Tribal, Federal, private, and other lands across the West are in need of treatment.

In April 2022, in coordination with partners, we announced that 10 of the highest priority western landscapes would receive an initial investment of $131 million in FY 2022 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The selected landscapes contain 68 high-risk firesheds and about 13 million acres where we are applying the funds to fuels and forest health treatment projects. The selected landscapes overlap with National Forest System lands in the West that require some level of immediate treatment.