Vilsack Announces New 10 Year Strategy to Confront the Wildfire Crisis

On Tuesday the Department of Agriculture announced a comprehensive response to the nation’s growing wildfire crisis. The effort is called “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests.” The strategy outlines the need to significantly increase fuels and forest health treatments to address the escalating crisis of wildfire danger that threatens millions of acres and many communities across the United States. The Forest Service will work with other federal agencies and partners to strategically focus on fuels and forest health treatments.

The strategy highlights new research on what Forest Service scientists identified as high-risk "firesheds” – large, forested landscapes with a high likelihood that an ignition could expose homes, communities, infrastructure and natural resources to wildfire. Firesheds, typically about 250,000 acres in size, are mapped to match the scale of community exposure to wildfire. The groundwork will begin in areas identified as being at the highest risk, based on community exposure.

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