S140-119

What This Bill Does

The Wildfire Prevention Act of 2025 directs the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to set annual mechanical-thinning and prescribed-fire goals on federal land, using 2019 through 2023 treatment averages as the baseline. Goals for fiscal years 2027 and 2028 must be at least 20 percent above that baseline, and goals for fiscal year 2029 and later must be at least 40 percent above it. The bill also requires public reporting on treatment acreage, challenges, streamlined environmental-review authorities, partner use, standardized data procedures, forest carbon balance, and wildfire performance metrics.

Who Benefits and How

Communities in the wildland-urban interface benefit from higher hazardous-fuels treatment goals, better tracking of whether treatments reduce wildfire risk, and a new categorical exclusion for high-priority hazard trees near roads, trails, and developed recreation sites. Electric transmission and distribution operators benefit from longer operating-plan horizons and permission, in special use permits or easements, to cut and remove vegetation near facilities without a separate timber sale when consistent with plans and environmental law. Local governments and Indian Tribes benefit from intervention rights and full settlement-participation status in lawsuits over nearby federal wildfire, insect, disease, or timber projects. Livestock grazing permittees benefit from a required federal strategy to use grazing as a wildfire-risk-reduction tool. Wildfire technology companies, universities, and nonprofits benefit from a seven-year public-private deployment and testbed pilot for prevention, detection, communication, and mitigation technologies.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Forest Service and BLM hazardous-fuels staff bear the core burden of calculating treatment baselines, setting annual goals, assigning regional or state acreage allotments, publishing data, preparing annual reports, and implementing standardized tracking procedures. USDA and Interior budget staff must include hazardous-fuels reporting in budget materials, while Forest Service carbon-accounting staff must publish regional net forest carbon balances every three years. Federal land managers must use at least one existing streamlined environmental-review authority for qualifying units within three years, develop a high-priority hazard-tree categorical exclusion, and run a technology testbed with agencies such as Defense, NOAA, FEMA, NASA, the U.S. Fire Administration, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Environmental-review and litigation participants may face faster project processing and more required local or Tribal participation in settlements.

Key Provisions

• Requires Forest Service and BLM treatment goals for mechanical thinning and prescribed fire, with minimum increases of 20 percent for fiscal years 2027 and 2028 and 40 percent for fiscal year 2029 and later.
• Requires annual public reports on treated acres, prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, regeneration harvests, high wildfire hazard or insect and disease risk areas, streamlined authorities, partner agreements, and implementation challenges.
• Standardizes hazardous-fuels data reporting by requiring single-counted acres, risk levels, wildland-urban interface status, activity types, cost per acre, location, and treatment effectiveness.
• Requires regional forest carbon accounting every three years and a congressional report on outcome-based wildfire-risk performance metrics.
• Expands utility right-of-way vegetation management permissions, raises the small timber-sale threshold to $55,000, and creates a high-priority hazard-tree categorical exclusion capped at 3,000 acres.
• Gives local governments and Indian Tribes intervention and settlement-participation rights for qualifying nearby federal projects.
• Requires a grazing strategy for wildfire risk reduction, mandatory use of existing streamlined environmental-review authorities on qualifying units, and a seven-year wildfire technology deployment and testbed pilot.