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When folks think about wildfires, May in Minnesota is hardly at the top of the list. But here we are, scrambling to respond as the Camp House fire explodes to 12,000 acres and numerous other fires crop up across the North Star State.
The reality is that the fire danger facing the U.S. today is far different, and far greater, than it was for most of our nation’s history. While some amount of fire is a natural part of ecosystems across the country, decades of mismanagement and accelerating climate change have driven an alarming rise in catastrophic mega-fires that devastate homes and landscapes. These factors also mean that we no longer have wildfire seasons. We have wildfire years.
Fortunately, the mega-fire crisis is a solvable problem — and a big part of the solution is making its way through Congress. The Fix Our Forests Act would equip communities, firefighters and forest managers with the tools they need to prepare for and manage wildfire. This includes establishing a new Community Wildfire Risk Reduction program to help communities become more fire-resistant, establishing a Wildfire Intelligence Center to embed cutting-edge science and technology into fire prediction and response, and making it easier to reduce buildups of dead wood and brush that significantly increase wildfire risk.
The Fix Our Forests Act is a rare bright spot of bipartisan collaboration in today’s deeply polarized climate, particularly when it comes to environmental issues. First introduced during the Biden administration, the Fix Our Forests Act was reintroduced earlier this year and swiftly passed the U.S. House with the support of every Republican and 64 Democrats. A bipartisan group of senators recently negotiated a companion bill that is even stronger.
Opponents have argued that the Fix Our Forests Act would stifle public input, roll back environmental protections and remove science from land management. These arguments are simply false. The Fix Our Forests Act appropriately balances the importance of community engagement and environmental review with the need to dramatically increase the pace and scale at which we use thinning and prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk on public lands. Scientific evidence shows that streamlining forest management as envisioned under the Fix Our Forests Act would not only build wildfire resilience but also directly mitigate future droughts, leading to less fire-prone conditions and less ecological and community damage overall.
The legislation would also substantially strengthen how we incorporate science into land and fire management by providing real-time analytical services, comprehensively modeling wildfire, consolidating air quality data and establishing information systems accessible to federal, state, local and tribal governments.
