Today, President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) promoting greater collaboration with state and local partners in forest management activities, efficient wildland firefighting and innovative technologies and new markets for wood products like biomass. House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement in response

"Today's executive order will help improve forest management and modernize wildland firefighting, enhancing the federal government’s ability to combat catastrophic wildfires. Increasing collaboration between state and federal agencies, using innovative technologies and eliminating inefficiencies are cornerstones of both this executive order and the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act. I'd like to thank President Trump for his leadership on this issue, and I look forward to working on more ways we can make our forests healthier and more resilient to fire."

Background

The EO restores common sense to wildfire suppression and forest management on the local, state and federal levels by incentivizing further collaboration, supporting technological innovations to forest management and firefighting and streamlining inefficiencies between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior. It also ensures utility corridors are more resilient to wildland fire, supports wildland firefighters by ensuring the continued use of fire retardant and technological upgrades to improve safety and incentivizes markets for innovative wood products like biomass. 

Many of the themes in this EO align with Chairman Westerman’s Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA), which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in January following the devastating fires in Los Angeles, Calif. FOFA is comprehensive, bipartisan legislation that restores forest health, increases resiliency to catastrophic wildfires and protects communities by expediting environmental analyses, reducing frivolous lawsuits and increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration projects. You can learn more about FOFA here.