The Biden-Harris administration has allocated $236 million from the 2021 Infrastructure Law to reduce wildfire risk and train firefighters across the country.
The Interior Department’s acting deputy secretary, Laura Daniel-Davis, made the announcement in Saguaro National Park alongside state and local leaders Tuesday. Almost three-quarters of the funding is aimed at reducing the risk of extreme wildfires by expanding the pace and scale of fuels management projects.
The department and other agencies plan to use mechanical thinning and chemical treatments of invasive species, as well as prescribed fire and cultural burning to benefit landscapes.
“Communities in the West, in particular, understand this threat—with increasing temperatures and more severe fires—and the Biden-Harris administration is taking action by investing in comprehensive wildland fire management that is creating more climate-resilient lands across the nation,” says Daniel-Davis.
In addition, almost $56 million will be used to help rehabilitate burned areas and develop locally adapted seeds and plants to revegetate severely damaged land that’s unlikely to recover naturally.
Other funds will go toward wildfire science and climate change resilience along with modernizing firefighter training.
In all, more than $1 billion in infrastructure funding has so far gone to wildland fire management.
