In an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry advanced a bill to address the growing threat of wildfires. There is now broad consensus that the poor health of our forests are threatening communities, public health and emissions goals.
But, as the bipartisan, bicameral Fix Our Forests Act proves, we don’t simply have to accept this as our new normal.
Recent fire seasons have been devastating — burning millions of acres, destroying thousands of homes and putting lives at risk. The growing wildfire challenge is also threatening climate goals, as forest fires increasingly become a source of emissions.
In 2020, for example, one wildfire season in California produced twice the emissions that the state had reduced between 2003 and 2019 combined, effectively wiping out 16 years of progress. Similarly, Canada’s 2023 wildfires released more carbon in just a few months than Russia or Japan emits from all fossil fuel use in an entire year.
While climate change plays a role in wildfires increasing in size, severity and frequency, the main driver is decades of poor forest management, which has left forests dense, overgrown and unhealthy. Under these conditions, our forests become tinderboxes, ready to ignite at any moment. Restoring them to a healthy state is crucial for protecting both our communities and our environment.
Unfortunately, many critical projects needed to restore our forests get stalled in lengthy review processes and legal challenges, unable to break ground before the next catastrophic wildfire hits.
For example, it’s not uncommon for the Forest Service to propose a project and start the National Environmental Policy Act process, only for an uncontrolled wildfire to burn the area before the environmental review is complete. It’s not surprising considering the fact that it takes an average of nearly five years to simply start a prescribed fire project, and forest management projects face more litigation under the act than any other project type.
Still, not all news is bad — in at least one case, we may have learned a valuable lesson. Through the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, enacted in 2016, Congress established a categorical exclusion for forest thinning projects of up to 10,000 acres within the Lake Tahoe Basin.
This policy allowed the Forest Service to implement critical forest treatments quickly. When the Caldor Fire ignited in 2021 and ultimately burned over 220,000 acres, these treatments played a crucial role in protecting South Lake Tahoe, bringing the fire to the ground and enabling fire officials to bring it under control.
Now, through the Fix Our Forests Act, Congress is looking to extend this model to the nation’s highest-risk forests, expanding the size of forest health projects eligible for a categorical exclusion from 3,000 acres up to 10,000 acres. The proposal draws on successes such as the Lake Tahoe Basin, and even former Forest Service Chief Randy Moore has expressed support for efforts to expedite critical forest management projects.
On top of streamlining the review process for forest management projects in high-risk areas, the bill establishes a Fireshed Center to improve coordination across federal, state, tribal and local partners. It also supports community wildfire initiatives, including home hardening and local resilience planning, while investing in reseeding and reforestation capabilities to restore healthy forests post-wildfire.
In January, after the Los Angeles wildfires became the most costly in history, the House passed the Fix Our Forests Act with significant bipartisan support. Now, as the year comes to a close, the Senate has the chance to advance this bill and deliver real solutions for communities across the country.
Wildfires have long been a part of life in the U.S., especially in the West, but we don’t have to simply accept the growing threat they pose. Congress should pass the Fix Our Forests Act before the end of the year to give communities and agencies the tools they need to address this challenge. We cannot wait for another disaster to spur us to act.
Sarah Rosa is the policy director at the American Conservation Coalition Action. She is a native Californian who grew up in the Silicon Valley and now resides in Sacramento.
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