Forest Service

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FS–1187b | January 2022

CONFRONTING THE WILDFIRE CRISIS

WILDFIRE CRISIS

Implementation Plan

A 10-YEAR IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Cover photo: Spring prescribed burning on the Bitterroot National Forest, MT. USDA Forest Service photo.

Winter pile burning after mechanical treatment on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, OR. USDA Forest Service photo.

Wildfires in the West have been growing 

in size and severity, placing homes, 

communities, infrastructure, and natural 

resources at grave and growing risk. 

Growing wildfire risk is due to past 

fire exclusion and accumulating fuels, 

a warming climate, and expanding 

development in the wildland-urban 

interface. Impacts have far-reaching effects 

on human health, the economy, community 

well-being, and the environment, including 

to areas important for water, carbon, and 

wildlife. This is a national emergency, and 

it calls for decisive action. 

In response, at the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, we 

have released a 10-year strategy, and 

are now developing a comprehensive 

implementation plan for working with 

partners across jurisdictions to reduce 

wildfire risk to people, communities, and 

natural resources while sustaining and 

restoring healthy, resilient fire-adapted 

forests. This implementation plan will 

focus on changing the trajectory of risk by: 

• Identifying the right locations and tools 

for fuels and forest health treatments 

that are science-based and equitable.

• Developing needed workforce capacity 

and investing in the enabling conditions 

required for success. 

• Working with partners across 

jurisdictions to develop and implement 

projects that are landscape scale, 

outcome-driven, and community ready. 

• Supporting planning and investments 

in fire-adapted communities and on 

partnerships to restore and reforest 

areas already impacted by fire and 

mitigate risks associated with postfire 

disaster events. 

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided 

an essential down payment on the resources 

we need to perform this work. Funds will help 

accomplish the hazardous fuels and forest 

heath, ecosystem restoration, community 

preparedness, and postfire recovery and 

reforestation work called for in the 10-year 

strategy and described in this implementation 

plan. We will coordinate with the U.S. 

Department of the Interior and other Federal 

agencies as we engage partners and work 

together to implement this historic legislation. 

This implementation plan is grounded in 

the recognition that this is shared work 

that will take cooperation and coordination 

across jurisdictions and with many partners. 

This includes continued close coordination 

and work with our sister land management 

agencies at the U.S. Department of the 

Interior and with other Federal partners to 

bring an all-of-Government approach to this 

challenge, especially as we work together 

to implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure 

Law. It includes close coordination and 

work with States, Tribes, local communities, 

private landowners and partners in the public 

and private sector, including conservation 

organizations, forest industry, utilities, and 

academia. It will also require continued focus 

and work with partners to ensure equity and 

environmental justice are built into the design 

and implementation of this plan.

This is intended to be a living document: it 

will be informed by engagement and will be 

updated periodically based on coordination 

with other Federal agencies; consultation with 

Tribes; engagement with States, communities, 

and public and private sector partners; new 

information about values at risk; and new 

information about available resources. We 

look forward to engaging with partners to 

meet this challenge together. 
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NATIONAL STRATEGY TO 

REDUCE WILDFIRE RISK

This implementation plan builds on a national strategy 

for confronting the wildfire crisis facing the Nation. 

The strategy calls for an unprecedented paradigm shift 

in land management to increase fuels and forest health 

treatments across jurisdictions to match the actual 

scale of wildfire risk to people, communities, and 

natural resources, especially in the Western United 

States. 

Over a period of 10 years, the proposed strategy calls 

for:

(1) Treating up to an additional 20 million acres on 

the National Forest System in the West, over and 

above current treatment levels;

(2) Treating up to an additional 30 million acres on 

other Federal, State, Tribal, and private lands in 

the West; and 

(3) Developing a plan for long-term maintenance 

beyond the 10 years.

In recent years, at the Forest Service, we have treated 

2-3 million acres per year for fuels and forest health 

across the Nation. Treatments typically involve 

thinning fuels and removing vegetation to reduce 

heavy fuel loads that can increase the risk of extreme 

wildfire events and using a risk-based approach to 

restore healthy fire to fire-adapted ecosystems. We will 

work with partners using a science-based approach 

to determine where to prioritize treatments and 

identify the appropriate tools, including prescribed 

fire and mechanical thinning to reduce hazardous 

fuels, change fire behavior, accomplish restoration 

objectives, and create healthier and more fire-resilient 

forests. These treatments work in concert with 

community, infrastructure, watershed, and other 

investments to protect values at risk

Under the 10-year strategy, we will fully sustain—and 

slightly increase—current treatment levels in the 

South, Midwest, and Northeast. But most additional 

investments will be in the West, where the wildfire 

risk to homes and communities is highest.

The map on the following page shows the firesheds 

with the highest risk of community exposure to 

wildfire from ignitions on all lands. It shows that a 

small number of firesheds present the largest risk 

to communities, based on historic fire behavior: in 

fact, less than 10 percent of fire-prone forests in the 

West account for roughly 80 percent of the fire risk 

to communities. Using this map, we can engage with 

Tribes, States, local communities, private landowners, 

and other partners to identify shared priorities for 

hazardous fuels treatments within these firesheds so 

that we can meaningfully reduce risk to communities. 

We can also work together to identify priorities for 

treatments in additional firesheds based on other 

values at risk and maintain prior investments in fuels 

and forest health. 

We are currently working to develop additional 

information about risks to water, carbon, and wildlife, 

including old-growth forests, as well as risks to 

socially disadvantaged and underserved communities. 

Work with partners to identify risks to critical 

infrastructure, social, cultural, and economic values, 

and the incorporation of Indigenous and traditional 

ecological knowledge will be important to inform 

shared priorities and project design. 

Building on the 10-year strategy, this implementation 

plan outlines a blueprint for developing and carrying 

out this work through partnerships and collaboration. 

The Forest Service, the U.S. Department of the 

Interior, other Federal agencies, Tribes, States, local 

communities, landowners, and other partners have 

an unprecedented opportunity for investment in 

this work through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

Those investments help to provide the resources 

needed to implement this plan at scale and truly 

change the trajectory of risk to people, communities, 

and natural resources at this pivotal time.

HIGH-RISK FIRESHEDS

Community exposure is a central factor in the strategy to confront the wildfire crisis. Other factors 

include Tribal and State plans, watersheds, equity, climate forecasts, and partner priorities.
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STRATEGIC PLANNING GUIDELINES

The strategy and implementation plan are based 

on peer-reviewed research and a framework for 

collaboration established over the past 20 years with 

other Federal, State, Tribal, local, and private partners. 

The following guidelines will support how we, at the 

Forest Service, approach this work:

• SCIENCE. Decisions about priority areas for fuels 

treatment and the design of fuels treatments 

will be grounded in the best available science, 

including science that incorporates traditional 

and Indigenous ecological knowledge and 

recognizes the value of projects based on 

traditional knowledge in consultation with local 

Tribes. Land managers will incorporate emerging 

data and technology into project design, along 

with a knowledge of historical stand conditions 

and structure. Other scientific tools, like potential 

operational delineations (PODs), fire behavior 

models, and information on ecological integrity 

for specific forest types will guide treatment 

placement and design. New information about 

changing climate conditions, drought, and other 

weather behavior that impacts fire risk will also 

be incorporated to inform work during the 

implementation period. 

• EQUITY AND INCLUSION. We will make investments 

to increase equity and inclusivity, reflecting the 

need to reach underserved communities, build 

community capacity, and overcome barriers 

through informed consent from those affected. 

Opportunities for co-management and costewardship with Tribes will also be a priority.

• CROSS-BOUNDARY PARTNERSHIPS. No one 

entity can accomplish the work alone: to 

achieve the collective impact that our forests 

and communities need, we must build a 

multijurisdictional coalition to work across 

land management jurisdictions, leverage diverse 

capacities, and build broad public and community 

support for the work at the scale necessary to 

make a difference. This includes work across 

Federal, Tribal, State, local, and private lands. 

Partnerships, including those beyond existing 

contracts and agreements, will help identify 

barriers to success and ways to overcome them. 

• OUTCOME-BASED PRIORITIZATION. We are focused on 

outcome-based work to achieve mutually desired 

priorities, including reducing risk to people, 

communities, natural resources, and other values 

at the scale of wildfire risk. While accomplishing 

this work with and through partners, we will use 

prioritization tools including PODs when looking 

at project layout and design. We will also develop 

outcome-based performance measures to track 

accomplishments and effectiveness and inform 

continued work. 

• COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGEMENT. We will need 

broad public agreement, including support from 

lawmakers and local communities, to place fuels 

and forest health treatments in the right places at 

the right scale. Achieving consensus will require 

effective and transparent public communication 

with diverse audiences and cooperation with 

trusted community partners using a wide range 

of strategies. Through partner and community 

engagement and collective action, we will strive to 

build the mutual trust needed to achieve shared 

goals and build the social license needed to work 

at the actual scale of wildfire risk.

• MAINTAINING IMPROVED CONDITIONS. Reducing fire 

hazard and maintaining desired conditions often 

requires repeated treatments over time; therefore, 

investments in priority landscapes will be made 

over appropriate timeframes.

CREATING CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS

Meaningfully changing the trajectory of wildfire risk 

by ramping up fuels and forest health treatments and 

investing in fire-adapted communities at the scale 

of actual wildfire risk will require recognizing and 

investing in the most critical enabling conditions 

needed for long-term success. In addition to moving 

forward with early projects, we will focus during years 

1 and 2 on working with partners to identify and 

invest in the enabling conditions necessary for shared 

success, including the conditions described below. In 

years 3 to 10 and beyond, we will work to create and 

sustain the conditions needed to reduce wildfire risk 

by restoring and maintaining healthy, resilient fireadapted forests and investing in communities across 

the West. Critical enabling conditions for this work at 

scale include:

• WORKFORCE CAPACITY. Over the last 20 years, 

the number of agency permanent employees 

dedicated to fire suppression has significantly 

increased, while the number of employees in 

other fields has decreased: we need to rebuild 

skills and workforce capacity to accomplish fuels 

and forest health treatments and fully engage with 

communities at the necessary pace and scale. This 

will require building and sustaining an inclusive 

workforce in Federal and State agencies as well 

as in local, Tribal, nongovernmental, and other 

organizations. We need processes for sharing 

resources across organizations for fuels and forest 

health treatments just as we share resources for 

wildland fire suppression. 

The El Dorado National Forest after the Caldor Fire occurred, showing an area that was 

treated for fuels near South Lake Tahoe, CA. USDA Forest Service photo by Cecilio Ricardo.
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Together, we will need to develop and train the 

shared workforce needed to plan, design, and 

evaluate projects; accomplish treatments at the 

needed scale; collaborate and communicate well 

with partners and communities; and support 

business operations like grants, agreements, 

and contracting. We will work to create 

new approaches to training and workforce 

development, including through the Civilian 

Climate Corps and other partners, sharing skills 

in short supply across jurisdictions. We will also 

work to improve the use of all existing authorities, 

for example by offering training on the use of 

the Tribal Forest Protection Act, Good Neighbor 

Authority, and the Tribal Biomass Demonstration 

Project. Indigenous people using fire in their 

communities and working together on Federal 

lands will be critical, and we need policies 

that enable inclusive practices and permit the 

appropriate use of fire. 

• CULTURE. A paradigm shift in land management 

to treat landscapes for fuels and forest health at 

the actual scale of wildfire risk will require shifts 

in agency and partner culture away from business 

as usual. We will need to clearly communicate 

leadership intent, mobilize sufficient financial 

and technical support, offer adequate skills 

development and training, and establish 

performance measures that reflect both the 

outcomes we want and the relationships we need 

to achieve them. We will also need to continue 

close coordination with the U.S. Department of 

the Interior and work with other Federal agencies 

to truly deliver an all-of-Federal Government 

response to this crisis, and to support investments 

in fire-adapted communities.

• PLANNING. Projects under the 10-year strategy will 

need to be carefully planned and analyzed, which 

will require new investments in Forest Service 

capacity for planning and environmental analysis. 

We will take a new approach to the landscapescale planning and analysis required to support 

project implementation at the scale needed and 

will work closely with the U.S. Department of 

the Interior and the White House Council on 

Environmental Quality to support planning and 

consultation needs.

• COLLABORATION. The 10-year strategy will require 

new investments in collaborative capacity, both 

within the Forest Service and other Federal 

agencies and for Tribes, States, partners, and 

communities. The strategy builds on an already 

robust network of relationships requiring a 

sustained commitment, but we will also need new 

relationships for equitable access to investments 

in reducing wildfire risk, repairing wildfire 

damage, increasing community resilience, and 

rehabilitating postfire landscapes.

• SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. We will continually 

incorporate the best available science into project 

decision making, design, and implementation. 

That includes acknowledging and incorporating 

Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge. 

We will continue to invest in risk mapping to 

identify areas of high wildfire risk to underserved 

communities; to ecologic values and ecosystem 

services, including water, carbon, wildlife 

and old-growth; and to social, cultural, and 

economic values including areas important for 

community access and recreation. We will need 

to develop additional gap analysis and decision 

support tools to inform project prioritization, 

design, and financing. Our projects will use all 

applicable emerging tools and technologies to 

reduce wildfire risk and increase community and 

landscape resilience following a wildfire.

• MONITORING AND EVALUATION. We will need the 

capacity to monitor progress and evaluate project 

success in terms of outcome-based performance 

measures. We will also monitor changing 

conditions, including, but not limited to, fire 

behavior and activity that might occur, changing 

drought, and weather patterns.

• COMMUNICATION OF OUTCOMES. To build community 

trust and support for fuels and forest health 

treatments at scale, we will need to communicate 

the process for project development and to 

quantify the project outcomes, both expected 

and achieved. The outcomes will need to reflect 

the viewpoints and values of everyone involved, 

including partners and stakeholders across shared 

landscapes.

• REGULATORY OR LEGISLATIVE NEEDS. Congress 

has provided extensive tools and programs for 

partnerships and landscape-scale work, such as 

the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Program, 

the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration 

Program, the Tribal Forest Protection Act, 

and the Good Neighbor Authority. Depending 

on conversations with partners and the bills 

being considered by Congress, we will work 

with Congress and partners on any additional 

regulatory or legislative changes to facilitate 

multijurisdictional work at the right scale.

• FOREST PRODUCTS. The wood products industry 

has been and will remain an important partner 

for helping achieve restoration outcomes and 

reduce wildfire risk. New and innovative uses 

of wood, such as cross-laminated timber, can 

not only support restoration and risk reduction 

outcomes but also sequester large quantities of 

carbon. 

• SMALLWOOD AND BIOMASS UTILIZATION. The Nation 

needs to supplement public investments in fuels 

and forest health treatments through markets for 

biomass and small-diameter materials removed 

during mechanical thinning. Support for wood 

products innovation, biochar, and other options 

for transporting and using the material will be 

important. 

• FIRE-ADAPTED COMMUNITIES. Fuels and forest 

health treatments need to be matched with 

equal investment in fire-adapted communities, 

as envisioned by the National Cohesive Strategy 

developed jointly by USDA, the U.S. Department 

The Santa Fe National Forest has worked with the Pueblo of Jemez on the Southwest Jemez (SWJM) Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program project to 

increase the landscape’s resilience to severe wildfire and other large-scale disturbances through collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration of priority forests 

and watersheds. The landscape area includes 210,000 acres on the Santa Fe National Forest, the Valles Caldera National Preserve, the Pueblo of Jemez Pueblo, and 

additional parcels of State, private, and Tribal lands. 

The SWJM project was designed to meet four primary purposes: restore the forest’s resilience to wildfire and other disturbances by using low-intensity fire to return 

fire to the landscape; protect cultural resources; improve wildlife habitat, watershed and riparian conditions, vegetation diversity, and water quality; and create local 

economic development opportunities. As shown in this image, timber from the restoration project will go to the Tribe’s nearby Walatowa Timber Industries mill to 

produce wood pellets, poles for utilities, beams and vigas for conventional and traditional home building, ties for railroads, posts for fences, milled lumber, mulch, and 

firewood. USDA photo by Lance Cheung with permission of the Pueblo of Jemez.
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of the Interior, and several other Federal 

agencies. We will need to work with partners 

and communities to support equitable access to 

technical and financial assistance for communitybased investments and continue learning and 

outreach about defensible spaces, planning, 

zoning, and other community actions that 

support living in fire-adapted landscapes.

• REFORESTATION AND RESTORATION. We will need to 

invest in reforestation and restoration businesses 

and capacity, including nursery capacity. Support 

from Rural Development programs could be an 

important part of helping to create resilience and 

restoration jobs in rural communities.

• FINANCIAL MECHANISMS. We will need financial 

instruments and related authorities, such as green 

bonds, to support public/private partnerships and 

long-term investments in fuels and forest health 

treatments, including maintenance treatments 

over time. We might also need new kinds of 

agreements among Federal agencies or with nonFederal land managers to attract investments in 

restoration work at the needed scale.

LAUNCHING PROJECTS

The first 2 years of the plan will start with a call to 

Forest Service regional foresters, followed by engaging 

with other Federal agencies, Tribes, States, and other 

partners, to list projects in high-risk firesheds that 

are ready to go, lacking only the necessary funding 

to begin. In particular, at the Forest Service, we will 

identify projects that are:

• LANDSCAPE SCALE. We will be looking for projects 

to treat fuels and restore forest health at the 

necessary scale and for smaller scale projects 

designed as part of a larger scale approach.

• OUTCOME DRIVEN. We will be looking for 

projects that are designed to reduce wildfire 

risk to communities, water supplies, or critical 

infrastructure (including utility lines, roads, and 

national security sites); critical ecological values 

(including watersheds, wildlife habitat, and oldgrowth stands) and ecosystem services (including 

carbon storage); economic values (including 

outdoor recreation, timber, and grazing areas); 

areas of cultural and historic significance 

(including areas important to Tribes); and areas of 

social importance to communities (including for 

access and subsistence use). Catastrophic wildfire 

is the largest threat to these values in the Western 

United States. This strategy and implementation 

plan will help protect and conserve these values. 

• COMMUNITY READY. We will be looking for projects 

that have been collaboratively developed with 

others and reflect shared priorities. Projects 

should also have completed relevant public 

comment and required environmental analysis, 

at least for the parts of the project intended to be 

initiated in years 1 and 2.

At the Forest Service, we will also be looking for 

projects with the following opportunities:

• INVESTING IN UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES. We 

will look for equitability in project design and 

implementation and for the potential to reduce 

wildfire risk to underserved communities or 

Tribes. The analysis will pinpoint any financial, 

technical, or other capacity barriers that prevent 

communities from being served. As appropriate, 

we will work with partners to meet community 

needs, including developing capacity within 

Tribal and other underserved communities.

• ATTRACTING AND COMPLEMENTING PARTNER 

INVESTMENTS. We will look for projects on 

National Forest System lands that attract partner 

and other Federal, Tribal, and State and private 

investments, including on adjacent jurisdictions. 

We will also look for opportunities to coordinate 

with U.S. Department of the Interior agencies 

across Federal land jurisdicitions, complement 

community investments in fire-adapted 

communities, invest in partner and community 

capacity, and meet the goals of the National 

Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.

• MAXIMIZING USE OF EXISTING AUTHORITIES. We 

will look for opportunities to use all available 

congressional authorities and programs for fuels 

and forest health treatments, including the Tribal 

Forest Protection Act, Good Neighbor Authority, 

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration 

Program, the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration 

Partnership Program, Shared Stewardship 

agreements, and other authorities.

At the Forest Service, we will group projects submitted 

for years 1 and 2 by landscapes as follows:

(1) High-risk firesheds treatable in fiscal year 2022.

(2) Other firesheds treatable in fiscal year 2022 based 

on local priorities.

(3) High-risk firesheds, and other firesheds treatable 

based on local priorities, in fiscal year 2023.

(4) High-risk firesheds needing capacity investment 

for implementation in fiscal year 2024 and 

beyond.

Lupine regenerates after the Robertson Draw Fire near Red Lodge, MT. USDA Forest Service photo.
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POSTFIRE RISK REDUCTION, 

RECOVERY, AND REFORESTATION

Postfire work is a critical and growing need and 

will be a priority for the Forest Service to work with 

communities to mitigate risk and support recovery. 

At the Forest Service, we have a lot of work to do to 

restore functioning ecosystems following the 2020 and 

2021 wildfires. 

For example, wildfires create more than 80 percent of 

reforestation needs, including approximately 1 million 

acres that burned with high severity in 2020 alone. 

We currently addresses only 6 percent of post-wildfire 

replanting needs per year, resulting in a rapidly 

expanding list of reforestation needs. We have plans 

for the reforestation of more than 1.3 million acres 

of National Forest System land. However, these plans 

only address one-third of National Forest System 

reforestation needs, estimated to be 4 million acres 

and growing. As we work to recover from wildfire, 

we are emphasizing planting the right species, in the 

right place, under the right conditions, so forests will 

remain healthy and resilient over time.

As with fuels and forest health treatments to reduce 

fire risk, we will work with Tribes, States, local 

communities, U.S. Department of the Interior and 

other Federal agencies, and partners to work across 

jurisdictions and build partnerships to address 

postfire risks to people, communities, and natural 

resources and to address the growing need for 

restoration and reforestation.

INITIATING PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

In years 1 and 2, at the Forest Service, we will 

work with other Federal agencies, Tribes, State and 

local agencies, communities, collaborative groups, 

nongovernmental organizations, private landowners, 

and other partners and stakeholders to develop this 

implementation plan in a way that is transparent and 

built on relationships. The USDA and Forest Service 

leadership team will lead some engagements at the 

national level, whereas others will be led by the agency 

and partners at the regional and forest level. The 

process will include:

• Coordinating with the U.S. Department of 

the Interior and other Federal agencies and 

Departments to support a whole-of-Government 

approach, including through the Federal Wildfire 

Resilience Interagency Working Group. 

• Coordinating with other agencies within USDA, 

including the Natural Resources Conservation 

Service on existing partnership work with the 

Forest Service, and connecting this work with 

the priorities of other USDA agencies, especially 

those in the Rural Development and Research, 

Education, and Economics mission areas

• Consulting with Tribes to meet Governmentto-Government responsibilities and ensure 

Indigenous knowledge, rights, priorities, and 

interests are reflected in fuels and forest health 

treatments under the 10-year strategy.

• Working with the Wildland Fire Leadership 

Council to coordinate with States, Tribes, and 

local governments in carrying out the Cohesive 

Strategy, and engaging with States, counties, and 

local communities to identify shared priorities.

• Reaching out to communities at risk from wildfire 

to build understanding and support for fuels and 

forest health treatments, including the increased 

use of prescribed fire. That includes working with 

communities at risk to increase their readiness for 

wildfire and to encourage them to become more 

fire adapted.

• Reaching out to minority and underserved 

communities to ensure the equitability of fuels 

and forest health treatments under the 10-year 

strategy, along with equitable access to postfire 

damage repair and landscape rehabilitation. 

Ensuring equitability includes removing systemic 

barriers and giving minority and underserved 

communities access to the financial, technical, and 

collaborative resources and capacity they need 

to reduce wildfire risk and to recover following a 

wildfire.

• Meeting with partners and stakeholders at the 

national, regional, and local levels to solicit 

insights and to assess partner capacity and needs 

for collective work.

• Engaging environmental and conservation nonprofit organizations, forest industry, utilities, water 

providers and other stakeholders to discuss values 

at risk and build shared understanding to support 

prioritization and design of projects, identify the 

necessary investments and enabling conditions 

for success, discuss opportunities for public/

private investments, and develop monitoring and 

outcome measurements to support accountability. 

• Meeting with local collaborative groups and 

with partners who have been working on crossboundary treatments through Cohesive Strategy 

projects, Shared Stewardship agreements, Joint 

Chiefs Landscape Restoration projects, Tribal 

Forest Protection Act projects, and Collaborative 

Forest Landscape Restoration projects to discuss 

shared priorities and capacities and build 

on collaborative land management planning 

processes already underway (such as Shared 

Stewardship agreements, State forest action 

plans, forest plan revisions, and cross-boundary 

projects), thereby capitalizing on their momentum 

and capacity and on the expectations they have 

raised.

• Holding conversations within the Forest Service to 

make sure that the views and needs of the agency’s 

workforce are recognized and included.

By the end of year 1, at the Forest Service, we intend to 

have a shared all-lands fireshed prioritization planning 

framework in place that Forest Service regions and 

forests can use together with other Federal agencies, 

States, Tribes, local communities, and other partners to 

design projects for years 3 to 10.

USDA Forest Service staff and partners, including Blue Forest Conservation, the State of California, the Yuba Water Agency, and the National Forest Foundation, 

discuss the Yuba Project. Working together, partners are piloting using a Forest Resilience Bond to pay for landscape-scale ecological restoration treatments on 

15,000 acres of the Tahoe National Forest within the Yuba River Watershed. Collaboration has also laid the groundwork for a new regional partnership to support 

forest management activities. USDA Forest Service photo by Paul Wade.
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NEXT STEPS • BEGIN ENGAGEMENTS. The announcement of the 

10-year strategy kicks off an engagement strategy 

to strengthen alignment with and leverage the 

energy and innovation of others around this 

critical work. This will include close engagement 

with the U.S. Department of the Interior and other 

Federal agencies, Tribal consultation, national 

and regional roundtables with State and local 

partners, and engagement with the partners 

and stakeholders identified above. We will be 

developing information and additional engagement 

opportunities throughout the year, as well as 

implementation workshops that foster learning 

on tools, techniques, and policy application; the 

collaborative development of outcome-based 

measures; an exploration of multiparty monitoring 

strategies and reporting; the development of 

public-private partnership strategy; on-going peer 

learning opportunities; and coordinated policy 

improvements. Please visit www.fs.fed.us for updated 

information on events and ways in which you can 

personally engage in this work. 

• CONTINUE SCIENCE AND PLANNING. Science, data, 

and decision support tools will inform planning, 

prioritization, and decision making. This includes 

continuing work being done to reflect risk to 

additional values, such as updating the fire exposure 

map to include watersheds and equity layers; 

identifying areas of importance for ecologic values, 

including carbon, wildlife, and old-growth; and 

identifying other social, cultural, and economic 

values at risk. Work is ongoing to support sciencebased project design to appropriately use all of 

the tools for treatment in the right places and 

in the right way and to incorporate Indigenous 

and traditional ecological knowledge into project 

design. Tools are being developed to support 

project planning and mapping funds from different 

sources to the work needed at the project level. 

The implementation plan will need to continue 

to incorporate information about changing risk 

scenarios with climate change and as fires happen in 

some of these locations on an annual basis.

Crews plant whitebark pine trees near 

Werner Peak on the Tally Lake Ranger 

District, Flathead National Forest, MT.

USDA Forest Service photo by A. Drysdale.
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• APPLY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, EQUITY, DIVERSITY, 

AND INCLUSION PRINCIPLES. A key priority 

for advancing wildfire risk reduction is 

supporting investments that address equity 

across communities of place and interest, 

particularly those that have been historically 

marginalized, have not traditionally enjoyed 

the same opportunities for economic mobility, 

or conversely have been negatively impacted 

through discrimination or under-representation 

in key decisions. At the Forest Service, we are 

committed to the principles and direction set 

forth by Executive Order (E.O.) 13985, “On 

Advancing Racial Equity and Support for 

Underserved Communities Through the Federal 

Government” and E.O. 14008, “Tackling the 

Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” and efforts 

related to Justice40. 

• SEEK TRIBAL CONSULTATION AND ENGAGEMENT. We 

aim to seek strategic and ongoing engagement 

with Tribes to identify opportunities in 

codeveloping a strategic implementation 

plan for wildfire risk reduction. The future 

implementation plan will give us the opportunity 

to work together with Tribes to build longterm capacity and job opportunities, as well as 

incorporate Indigenous and traditional ecological 

knowledge into planning and project design. 

Formal consultations in addition to informal 

conversations and roundtables are planned. 

• COORDINATE ACROSS GOVERNMENT. In addition to 

close collaboration with the U.S. Department of 

the Interior throughout the implementation plan, 

we will support an all-of-Government approach 

to this crisis and will continue to participate 

in on-going and emerging interagency groups, 

including the emerging Wildfire Commission, the 

Wildland Fire Leadership Council, the Federal 

Wildfire Resilience Interagency Working Group, 

and other venues. We will also remain focused 

on critical USDA and Administration priorities, 

including Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry 

and direction under Executive orders. 

• CONTINUE CAPACITY BUILDING. We are still 

developing comprehensive staffing plans and will 

be increasing capacity in not only field personnel 

specializing in prescribed fire to complete the 

work but also key administrative positions 

like contracting officers, human resources 

professionals, collaboration and partnership 

coordinators, communications, and grants and 

agreements specialists who will assist us in 

connecting with partners around this work. These 

partners in turn will be force multipliers. 

We also recognize that achieving the desired 

pace and scale of land treatments will require the 

support of State and local governments, Tribes, 

nongovernment organizations, and private 

contractors. We are identifying opportunities 

for expanding Civilian Conservation Corps, 

partners, and contractor support in key areas for 

a shared workforce. As part of the engagement 

strategy, agency personnel will discuss ideas for 

sharing skills in the context of multijurisdictional 

projects to avoid bottlenecks. We will also identify 

and address gaps in capacity that contribute to 

inequity.

• ADDRESS KEY ENABLING CONDITIONS. Addressing 

investments in key enabling conditions, in 

addition to workforce capacity, includes planning 

and consultation, collaborative capacity and 

community engagement, transportation and 

utilization of woody material from treatments, 

training needs, and more.

• DEVELOP SYSTEMS AND MEASURES. Developing 

systems and measures for tracking work and 

progress toward outcomes is critical. Tracking 

outcomes is a known challenge. The existing 

FACTS system will be our starting point for 

tracking progress in work accomplished. 

Through this first year, we will engage partners 

and our own researchers to develop models 

to compare fire growth in pretreatment and 

posttreatment landscapes. Understanding the 

optimal distribution of fuels mitigation work will 

help decision makers as they balance competing 

demands across multiple landscapes. The work 

will be planned and tracked in accordance 

with the Program Management Improvement 

Accountability Act, taking a holistic perspective 

toward measuring success and using key 

performance indicators aligned with the strategy. 

• CONTINUE FIRE-ADAPTED COMMUNITY WORK. We 

will continue working to support fire-adapted 

community work through planning, zoning, 

and wildfire defense grants. Investments in 

fire-adapted communities are a critical part 

of the Cohesive Strategy and are necessary to 

complement fuels and forest health work in order 

to mitigate risks to people, homes, communities 

and infrastructure and create resilient, fireadapted communities.

• ADDRESS POSTFIRE RISK REDUCTION, RECOVERY, 

AND REFORESTATION. We will continue to work 

to address the need for postfire risk reduction, 

recovery, and reforestation, including mapping, 

engagement on priorities, and planning/

workforce needs. Mitigating postfire risk and 

addressing reforestation and recovery is a growing 

need, and work will be ongoing with partners 

to identify priorities and implement projects of 

critical importance.

• MAINTAIN IMPROVED CONDITIONS. We will continue 

to focus on maintaining improved conditions 

over time and building long-term investment 

partnerships. This work will take repeated and 

sustained investment. We are working now to 

identify the right timeframes for treatment and 

develop the relationships and sustained ability 

to invest during the 10-years and beyond to 

maintain reductions in risk and improved forest 

health and resilience. 

• IDENTIFY AND INVEST IN ENABLING CONDITIONS.

We will continue to focus on identifying and 

investing in enabling conditions and identifying 

any gaps that need to be addressed. As we engage 

with others, we will continue to refine our 

shared understanding of the enabling conditions 

necessary for sustained and meaningful success, 

and will work together to create solutions to 

barriers and build on opportunities for collective 

impact.

• ACKNOWLEDGE UNKNOWNS. We are committed 

to learning and collaboration to advance our 

collective impact in a meaningful way. We 

know that there is much to learn, and we are 

committed to being open and transparent as we 

work together with others to implement this plan 

and meaningfully change the trajectory of risk to 

people, communities, and natural resources and 

restore fire-adapted and resilient landscapes.

For more information and for updated information on 

roundtables, please visit: www.fs.usda.gov

The Kern Valley Hotshots assist 

with a prescribed fire in California. 

Bureau of Land Management 

photo by Michael Chiodini.
Mogollon Rim Ranger District on the Coconino 

National Forest. The Kaibab, Coconino, ApacheSitgreaves, and Tonto National Forests are part of 

the Four Forest Restoration Initiative in Arizona. 

USDA Forest Service photo by Brady Smith.
WILDFIRE CRISIS

Implementation Plan

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