Wildland fire mitigation and management commission report outlines ‘New Approach’ to address wildfire crisis
9 December 2023
Published by: https://www.425business.com
USA – The Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission recently released a report outlining recommendations for addressing the nation’s wildfire crisis. The commission says it’s expecting to hold an open session on the report in the first quarter of next year.
“The recent disaster on Maui is a tragic reminder of the growing risks of wildfires to communities and the heartbreaking losses they leave behind,” said Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell in a press statement. “The detailed recommendations provided by this commission emphasize the urgent need to work across jurisdictions and disciplines to protect our nation’s residents, communities, and natural resources from fire. Together, we will pave a bold new path to wildfire resilience nationwide.”
In the face of the growing crisis, Congress established the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The legislation charged the 50-member commission with the task of creating policy recommendations to address the wildfire crisis, including mitigation, management, and post-fire rehabilitation and recovery, a release noted.
“The suite of recommendations that follow outline a new approach to wildfire, one that is proactive in nature, better matched to the immense scale and scope of the crisis, and more reflective of the multi-scalar, interrelated nature of the overall system. Importantly, just as there is no single cause of this crisis, there is no single solution,” the report states.
The report makes 148 recommendations covering seven key themes:
- Urgent new approaches to address the wildfire crisis;
- Supporting collaboration to improve partner involvement;
- Shifting from reactive to proactive in planning for, mitigating and recovering from fire;
- Enabling beneficial fire to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire;
- Supporting and expanding the workforce to hire and retain the wildland firefighting staff needed to address the crisis;
- Modernizing tools for informed decision-making to better leverage available technology and information; and
- Investing in resilience through increased spending now to reduce costs in the long run.
