The federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission held its first in-person meeting September 14 through 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 50-member commission developed a strategy to address the full suite of issues as required by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through topical workgroups.
Workgroups are charged with exploring a topic, preparing policy recommendations for the full commission to consider, and will meet as needed for several months, parallel to the meetings of the full commission. Workgroups have staggered start and stop dates, allowing members to participate in more than one workgroup and for each workgroup to build on previous efforts.
Cross-cutting themes, including adaptation to climate change and environmental justice, will be woven throughout discussions. Workgroups will also reach out to subject matter experts as needed to help the commission explore topics and recommendations.
Recommendations for wildland fire policy changes on the topics below are welcome and should be provided between the dates provided for the workgroups to properly discuss and consider them.
Aviation Strategy: Creation of a strategy to meet aerial firefighting equipment needs through 2030 in the most cost-effective manner. Submissions welcome October 24th – November 14th, 2022.
Cohesive Strategy: A review of the Cohesive Strategy and recommendations for increasing its effectiveness. Submissions welcome October 24th - November 14th, 2022.
Landscapes: May include recommendations related to landscape treatments, prescribed fire, landscape planning (including a discussion of categorical exclusions and planning capacity), forest products industry, and wood utilization. Submissions welcome November 1st - December 14th, 2022.
Communities: May include recommendations related to the structure ignition zone (e.g., structure modification, defensible space), insurance, Community Wildfire Protection Plans, land-use planning, codes and ordinances, long-term recovery planning, risk assessment, and community risk reduction. Submissions welcome November 1st - December 14th, 2022.
Post-fire: May include recommendations related to social recovery, long-term recovery planning, post-fire flood mitigation, remediation, and reforestation. Submissions welcome December 1st , 2022 - January 6th, 2023.
Response Coordination: May include recommendations related to evaluation of coordination of response to and suppression of wildfires occurring across jurisdictions, including suppression remediation. Submissions welcome January 3rd - 24th, 2023.
Science, Data, and Technology: May include recommendations related to policy change for modernizing and expanding the use of technology, as well as a consideration of the implications of data mining and data diversity. Submissions welcome February 1st - 22nd, 2023.
Public Health and Infrastructure: May include recommendations related to utilities, transportation, occupational and public health, monitoring and alert systems, water, and evacuation. Submissions welcome February 1st - 22nd, 2023.
Appropriations: An assessment of federal spending, performance measures, and accountability for wildland fire-related programs. Submissions welcome March 1st - April 21st, 2023.
Workforce: May include recommendations related to compensation, recruitment and retention, staffing structures, and meeting the challenge of meeting workforce capacity (including support structures such as housing, health and wellbeing). Submissions welcome March 1st - April 21st, 2023.
All recommendations will be thoughtfully considered. Please note however, that submitting recommendations does not guarantee that the workgroup will advance those recommendations to the full commission for consideration. Due to the timelines established for the Commission, responses to submitted recommendations will not be provided.
Policy suggestions should be to recommend congressional action. The commission is working closely with the Wildland Fire Leadership Council and the Interagency Working Group on Wildfire. Both are venues for the consideration of administrative policy change and interagency cooperation and recommendations that do not constitute congressional action may be routed to these other venues for their consideration.
For more information contact wildlandfirecommission@usda.gov.