Bill > S140

This bill, known as the Wildfire Prevention Act of 2025, is a comprehensive legislative effort to address forest health and wildfire risk on federal lands through multiple strategic approaches. The bill establishes mandatory annual goals for mechanical thinning and prescribed fire treatments, requiring federal land management agencies to increase forest management activities by 20% in 2027-2028 and 40% by 2029, compared to baseline activities from 2019-2023. It mandates increased transparency through detailed annual reporting on hazardous fuel reduction activities, including specifics about acres treated, wildfire risk levels, and activity effectiveness. The legislation also introduces several innovative provisions, such as creating a public-private technology partnership to develop advanced wildfire prevention and detection technologies, exploring the use of livestock grazing as a wildfire risk reduction tool, and developing a new categorical exclusion for managing high-priority hazard trees near roads, trails, and recreation sites. Additionally, the bill provides local governments and Native American tribes with greater intervention rights in federal land management projects, increases the timber sale threshold, and requires federal agencies to use streamlined environmental review processes for forest management activities in high-risk areas. The overarching goal is to proactively manage federal forests to reduce wildfire risks, improve forest health, and enhance environmental and community safety.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/140/all-info