Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response
This Executive Order (EO 14308) directs Federal agencies to streamline and strengthen U.S. wildfire prevention, mitigation, and response. It orders consolidation of Interior and Agriculture Department wildland fire programs, expands federal support for state, local, tribal, and community wildfire efforts, and pushes agencies to remove regulatory barriers and adopt new technologies (including AI, better mapping, and satellite data) to detect, predict, and fight fires. The EO also encourages expanded use of prescribed burns, woody biomass, timber production, and measures to reduce wildfire ignitions from the power grid, and asks the Department of Defense to release historical satellite data and consider selling excess aircraft to aid firefighting. The goal is faster, more capable wildfire response and more proactive fuel-reduction on the landscape. Potential impacts include faster federal coordination and more resources for local firefighting, a regulatory shift toward more active forest management (with implications for air quality and conservation), and changes to how litigation involving utilities is handled.
Key Points
- 1Federal program consolidation: Within 90 days, the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture are directed to, as practicable and lawful, consolidate wildland fire programs to use offices, budgets, procurement, research, and coordinating bodies more efficiently.
- 2Expand partnerships and incentives: Within 90 days, DOI and USDA (with DHS) must expand partnerships, compacts, mutual aid, and other measures to empower federal, state, local, tribal, and community-driven land management and wildfire response, and to incentivize responsible local prevention and mitigation.
- 3Technology and data roadmap: Within 180 days, agencies (with OSTP) must develop a technology roadmap to boost local firefighting capacity using artificial intelligence, data sharing, improved modeling/mapping, ignition detection, and weather forecasting; within 120 days DoD should identify and declassify historical satellite datasets useful for wildfire modeling.
- 4Promote prescribed fire, biomass use, and power-grid safeguards: Within 90 days, EPA is to consider changing rules that impede appropriate prescribed burns (controlled burns); USDA and EPA to consider easing rules on fire retardant; USDA to consider promoting woody biomass/forest products to reduce fuel loads; DOI/USDA/DOE/FERC to consider rulemakings to cut ignition risk from the bulk-power system (e.g., vegetation management near transmission lines).
- 5Regulatory/measurement changes and resource transfers: Agencies are to identify and consider eliminating rules that hinder prevention/detection/response (to be reflected in the Fall 2025 regulatory agenda), develop performance metrics for wildfire response (response times, fuels treatments, cost-effectiveness, safety), and DoD is to evaluate prioritizing sale of excess aircraft/parts for wildfire response. The Attorney General is asked to review utility-related wildfire litigation to align DOJ positions with these prevention/mitigation goals.