Abstract

In the face of this national challenge, Congress took bipartisan action to establish the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission (Commission) through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The legislation charged the 50-member Commission with the ambitious task of creating policy recommendations to address nearly every facet of the wildfire crisis, including mitigation, management, and postfire rehabilitation and recovery. Recognizing the urgency of the crisis, the Commission was given just a single year to conduct a sweeping review of the wildfire system and produce a comprehensive set of policy priorities.

The suite of recommendations that follow outline a new approach to wildfire, one that is proactive in nature, better matched to the immense scale and scope of the crisis, and more reflective of the multi-scalar, interrelated nature of the overall system. Importantly, just as there is no single cause of this crisis, there is no single solution.

Recommendations produced by the Commission chart a course forward for comprehensive policy change to address the wildfire crisis. Taken together, these recommendations are intended to help lead the nation toward better wildfire outcomes including diminished loss of life and property, and functioning and resilient ecosystems.

While the Commission’s focus was on federal legislative action, it is this body’s intent that the solutions proposed in this report will also be relevant and useful to federal agencies; state, local, and Tribal governments; the non-governmental, private, and academic sectors; and the public at large.