According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NICC) data, 64,897 wildfires burned 8,924,884 acres in the United States in 2024. The California wildfires in January 2025 caused $250 billion in property damage and economic losses. The Palisades and Eaton fires alone caused between $28 billion and $53.8 billion in property damages.
In April, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators introduced the Fix Our Forests Act to mitigate wildfires. The bill would create requirements for federal land forest management. It would also expedite the review of certain forest management projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review while exempting some activities from NEPA review.
“This bill represents a strong, bipartisan step forward, not just in reducing wildfire risk in and around our national forests, but in protecting urban areas and our efforts to reduce climate emissions. It prioritizes building fire-resilient communities, accelerating the removal of hazardous fuels, and strengthening coordination across federal, state, and tribal agencies, including through the creation of the first-ever National Wildfire Intelligence Center,” said Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), one of the senators who introduced the bill.
Support and Opposition to the Fix Our Forests Act
Environmental and conservation organizations are mixed about the bill. While some claim it will reduce wildfires and protect communities, others point out that certain provisions in the bill allow the Trump administration to bypass scientific and public review.
The National Audubon Society supports it, claiming it provides direction for improving forest management while reducing wildfire risk. Marshall Johnson, chief conservation officer at Audubon, said the bill “represents an important step in reducing wildfire risks across forested landscapes.”
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership also supports the bill. The organization touts the bill as making communities more resilient, suppressing fire more efficiently, and increasing the restoration of forests and watersheds. The National Wild Turkey Federation applauded the bill as encouraging “immediate action before more destruction occurs.”
The Sierra Club opposes the bill because it mainly focuses on reducing or cutting environmental reviews in national forests to increase industrial logging. Anna Medema, Sierra Club’s Associate Director of Legislative and Administrative Advocacy for Forests and Public Lands, said that the bill gives the Trump administration “more tools to cut bedrock environmental laws, shut out judicial review, and give free rein to corporate loggers.”
EarthJustice believes the bill would roll back the Endangered Species Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and NEPA reviews of millions of acres of federal land. “This bill fails to invest in proven wildfire prevention solutions to effectively protect communities and our forests from increasing wildfire threats,” said Earthjustice Senior Legislative Representative Blaine Miller-McFeeley.
The Defenders of Wildlife points out that the bill would overturn the ESA legal precedent that requires the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to consult on a forest or land management plan when a new species is listed as endangered, land is designated as critical habitat, or new information may affect a species or habitat. The organization also points out that the statute of limitations for challenging projects in court would be reduced from six years to 150 days in most instances.
An Alternative Bill
Opponents of the Fix Our Forests Act tout an alternative bipartisan bill, the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act. U.S. Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA) introduced the bill that would invest $1 billion annually for wildfire resilience and protection.
The bill, specifically, would establish guidelines for new Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plans (CPWRP) developed with community members, first responders, and relevant state agencies.
“Our bipartisan legislation builds on the investments we made under the Biden-Harris administration so we can prepare our communities for worst-case scenarios while working to address the build-up of issues that make wildfires so much more destructive than ever before,” said Representative Huffman.
Wildfire in a climate-changed world requires a well-informed approach free from political interference and misinformation.
