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USDA launches strategy to confront wildfire crisis

The USDA has launched a 10-year strategy with the National Forest Service to confront the wildfire crisis, made possible by nearly $3-Billion dollars from the bipartisan infrastructure law.

Ag Secretary Vilsack says the new strategy will begin identifying the highest risk fire shed areas, based on community exposure. Treatments, including the use of prescribed fires and thinning to reduce hazardous “fuels”, will be used to reduce risks. He says millions of acres and many communities in the U.S.

In the past six years, USDA says more than 10 million acres burned nationwide, an area more than six times the size of Delaware.

Vilsack says the trend will only become worse from the effects of climate change and now is the time to escalate protection of homes, communities and natural resources.

Some of the highest risk areas based on community exposure include the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada Range in California, the front range in Colorado, and the Southwest.