On July 12th, Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Tommy Beaudreau, announced an investment of $185 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support wildland fire management nationwide in fiscal year 2023 and to assist land managers in planning for wildfire management activities in fiscal year 2024. The funding will support special pay supplements and training opportunities for federal wildland firefighters and will advance collaborative fuels management and burned area rehabilitation activities. This investment builds on $278 million already allocated in fiscal year 2023 funding for wildland fire management, announced in December 2022 and March 2023.
The Department is dedicating $12.5 million from this funding towards 63 projects in eight states to reduce hazardous fuels on nearly 40,000 acres of BLM-managed lands. These projects in California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming will help improve community protection and landscape resilience, with a focus on wildfire resilience in the wildland-urban interface and core sagebrush areas.