To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes.

This bill would require the Secretary of Agriculture, via the Forest Service, to aggressively suppress wildfires on a narrow set of National Forest System (NFS) lands identified as “covered”. Specifically, the agency must use all available resources to extinguish wildfires detected on covered lands within 24 hours, and immediately suppress any prescribed fire that exceeds its approved prescription. The bill also prohibits hindering state or local firefighting efforts on these lands, limits the use of fire as a management tool to strictly prescribed fires that meet legal/regulatory standards, and allows backfires or burnouts only under certain conditions (by the incident commander or to protect firefighting personnel) with a requirement to control and extinguish them. Lands are considered “covered” if they are in severe drought (D2–D4), if the National Wildland Fire Preparedness level is 5, or if the area is in the top 10% of wildfire exposure according to Forest Service risk models. In short, the measure creates a defined subset of Forest Service lands where aggressive, rapid suppression is mandated and where the use of fire as a management tool is tightly constrained.