Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on September 10 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was directing $100 million for 21 new projects to reduce the threat of wildfire in high-risk areas across the country. The funds will support 14 projects in 18 national forests.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included $1.4 billion for the USDA Forest Service in wildfire risk reduction funds. The Inflation Reduction Act provided an additional $1.8 billion to reduce the risk of wildfire to neighborhoods, infrastructure, watersheds, and the many other benefits forests provide.

The Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program uses the hazardous fuels funds to treat additional areas of high wildfire risk where national forests and grasslands meet homes and communities, known as the Wildland-Urban Interface. The program allows national forests, in collaboration with Tribes, communities and partners in qualifying states to build local capacity for projects to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health.

The program supports new, expanded efforts under the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The funding was awarded to projects after an internal, competitive process. To be eligible for the program, the projects had to be located:

1. on National Forest System lands,
2. outside of the existing Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscapes,
3. within the wildland-urban interface, and
4. in areas with either very high wildfire hazard potential or within a high-risk fireshed.

The projects funded through the program were collaboratively designed and will be implemented with the help of partners. In addition to on-the-ground forest restoration work such as mechanical thinning and prescribed fire, the projects support crucial surveys, workforce development, and public engagement that enable future wildfire risk reduction efforts.