Letter to the President of the United States - Padilla, Feinstein to Biden: Investigate Additional Steps to Mitigate Wildfire Risk

Letter

Dear President Biden:

We write to thank you for your efforts to address the increasing threat of
wildfire in the Western United States, and to urge you to take additional steps to
mitigate the potential for another catastrophic fire season. While not over yet, this
year will likely be the second-worst fire season on record for California, behind
only 2020. Furthermore, eight of California's largest wildfires on record have
occurred in the past five years, burning 10 million acres, causing 183 deaths and
destroying more than 32,000 homes. Something has to change.

To that end, we ask that you direct the Administration and forthcoming
commission on federal wildfire policy, as established in the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act, to immediately review the federal government's policies
on 1) wildfire suppression, and 2) wildland firefighting staffing structures. Based
on feedback we have received from experts in California, we believe that such a
review is urgently needed ahead of next fire season to ensure federal firefighting
agencies--which have primary responsibility for fighting fires on nearly 58% of
California's forest land--can keep pace in this new era of erratic, climate-driven
mega blazes.

As more wildfires become so large they cross multiple land ownership types
-- federal, state, tribal and private -- we must reassess the way we approach and
coordinate suppression. The federal government, especially in the West, is no
longer battling fires that just impact federal forest land. Lives, homes and other
privately owned property are increasingly at risk. We applaud U.S. Forest Service
Chief Randy Moore for understanding the seriousness of the most recent fire
season and directing federal firefighters to suppress every ignition as quickly as
possible. However, this was a temporary direction, and it indicates that we need a
substantive and thorough review and update of federal wildfire suppression policy.

The National Fire Plan (NFP), which was developed in 2000 to provide a
framework for responding to wildfires and assessing their impacts to communities,
has not been updated in almost a decade. We ask that the Administration and
commission revisit the NFP with an eye toward improving interagency
coordination and alignment around wildfire suppression, including decisions about
initial attack, fire management and the use of specific firefighting strategies.

Additionally, we ask that the Administration and the commission re-evaluate
federal wildland firefighting staffing structures to ensure we have enough crews
available to fight fires in high-risk areas like California. It is our understanding
that federal wildland firefighting agencies have different work-week schedules
than many of their state and local counterparts, including the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which can result in a shortage of
federal crews, especially at night. Having resources to contain fires when they are
still small is essential to avoiding massive, landscape-scale fires that are much
more difficult, dangerous and expensive to get under control. While a nationwide
overhaul of staffing structures is likely unnecessary, we do think it is important to
look into solutions, perhaps on a pilot-program basis, in high-need areas
throughout California and the West.

We greatly appreciate your continued personal engagement on Western
wildfire and remain committed to working with you on this urgent priority.

Sincerely,

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