President Biden Signs Executive Order to Strengthen America’s Forests, Boost Wildfire Resilience, and Combat Global Deforestation
Alice Popkorn from GAIA - Germany, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
America’s forests are a key climate solution, absorbing carbon dioxide equivalent to more than 10% of U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions. Federal lands are home to many of the nation’s mature and old-growth forests, which serve as critical carbon sinks, cherished landscapes, and unique habitats. However, these magnificent ecosystems are threatened by the climate impacts that are already here, with intensifying wildfires demanding urgent action to protect our forests and the economies that depend on them. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides historic wildfire resilience funding and calls for prioritizing the restoration of old-growth forests.
Building on this directive and the Administration’s commitment to climate-smart forest stewardship, today’s Executive Order will:
- Safeguard mature and old-growth forests on federal lands, as part of a science-based approach to reduce wildfire risk.
- Strengthen reforestation partnerships across the country to support local economies and ensure we retain forest ecosystems and sustainable supplies of forest products for years to come.
- Combat global deforestation to deliver on key COP26 commitments.
- Enlist nature to address the climate crisis with comprehensive efforts to deploy nature-based solutions that reduce emissions and build resilience.
Across these efforts, the Administration will leverage historic investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the FY 2022 budget, and work in partnership with states, Tribal Nations, communities, industry, NGOs, labor, scientists, and private landowners, to strengthen our forests while creating good-paying jobs.
Today’s Executive Order will advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate goals and economic agenda by:
Reducing Wildfire Risk
Under President Biden’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service has developed a 10-year strategy to reduce wildfire risk through science-based fuels and forest health treatments, with a goal of treating an additional 50 million acres across federal and non-federal lands. The Department of the Interior (DOI) has also developed a 5-year plan for monitoring, maintenance, and treatment efforts focused on fire-prone Interior and Tribal lands.
As a critical down payment, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $8 billion to fund forest and land management activities, and the FY 2022 Omnibus provides $5.7 billion for wildland fire management and related risk mitigation and research. USDA and DOI are mobilizing $5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for hazardous fuels reduction and other mitigation programs, such as a $1 billion Community Wildfire Defense Grant program and $600 million for firefighter pay—providing about 1,500 additional firefighters and supporting the President’s commitment that no federal firefighter will make less than $15 an hour. Already, USDA has announced $131 million this year for wildfire risk reduction treatments in high-risk landscapes in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directs DOI and USDA to specifically prioritize the restoration of old-growth forests, taking into consideration their contributions to landscape fire adaptation. However, there is currently no inventory that identifies the location and condition of mature and old-growth stands.
To strengthen America’s forests and advance a holistic, science-based approach to wildfire resilience and forest restoration, this Executive Order advances action on:
- Data Collection and Analysis: DOI and USDA will conduct the first-ever inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal lands. This will be completed and made publicly available in a year and will establish consistent definitions, accounting for regional and ecological variation. The agencies will then analyze threats facing these forests, including from wildfires and other climate impacts.
- Climate-Smart Stewardship: After completing the inventory, DOI and USDA will develop new policies, with robust opportunity for public comment, to institutionalize climate-smart management and conservation strategies that address the threats facing mature and old-growth forests on federal lands.
- Enhanced Coordination: DOI and USDA will partner with other federal agencies, states, Tribal Nations, and any interested private landowners to better coordinate conservation and wildfire risk reduction efforts—leveraging investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other sources. Pix: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Going forward, the Administration will work with Congress to secure additional resources, by requesting $6.1 billion for wildfire risk reduction in the President’s FY 2023 Budget and continuing to pursue historic climate resilience investments in additional legislation.
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