Pulse: Public Opinion Strongly Supports Legislation to Manage Forests, Reduce Wildfire Risk

The February LANDTHINK Pulse revealed that 73% of respondents STRONGLY SUPPORT legislation that addresses the urgent need to restore forest health, enhance landscape resilience, and protect communities from catastrophic wildfires that devastate lives, property, and ecosystems. The Palisades fire and the Eaton fire erupted on Jan. 7, fueled by severe drought conditions and strong Santa Ana winds. After burning for 24 days and reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble and ash, both fires were fully contained on Jan. 31. Over 37,000 acres burned and more than 16,000 structures destroyed.

Last month, the February Pulse asked: Do you support legislation to improve forest management and reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires?

The devastating fires near Los Angeles are representative of a broader trend, with an area larger than the state of Nevada burning over the past decade. Such destructive blazes have become increasingly common, and their human toll is staggering: lives lost, families displaced, and entire neighborhoods reduced to ashes.

Like other recent severe wildfires, the southern California fires have raised questions about what can be done to prevent such devastation in the future.

On January 2025, Democratic Rep. Scott Peters from California and Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman from Arkansas introduced an updated version of the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA). The bill is intended to improve forest health, increase resilience to wildfires, boost forest restoration projects, protect communities, and more. The House quickly brought the bill to the floor on January 23 and passed it with a bipartisan vote of 279 to 141. It now awaits action in the Senate.

Information from Rep. Westerman’s website states that the bill will:

• Simplify and expedite environmental reviews for forest management projects
• Make communities more resilient to wildfires by better coordinating existing grant programs and promoting new research
• Promote federal, state, tribal and local collaboration
• Deter frivolous litigation that delays essential projects
• Create a framework for prioritizing treatments in the forests at the highest risk of wildfire and near vulnerable communities
• Encourage the adoption of state-of-the-art science and techniques for federal land managers
• Encourage active management to improve the safety of powerlines and other infrastructure
• Strengthen tools like Good Neighbor Authority and Stewardship Contracting
• Support wildland firefighters and their families by ensuring continuity in casualty assistance programs

The Fix Our Forests Act has broad bipartisan support, with key organizations and representatives from both parties advocating for it to address wildfire risks and improve forest health. The Fix Our Forests Act is supported by many organizations including American Forests, the National Congress of American Indians, the Western Fire Chiefs Association, the Federation of American Scientists, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, National Wild Turkey Federation, and many more.

Opponents, including environmentalists and Democrats, say the Fix Our Forests Act would open millions of acres of federal land to logging without scientific review or community input, potentially increasing the risk of wildfires while rolling back regulations to protect endangered and threatened species. Critics believe that FOFA would undermine critical environmental protections like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act for the benefit of the timber industry.

On March 1st, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to immediately increase domestic timber production and streamline federal policies to enhance forest management, reduce wildfire risks, and decrease reliance on imported timber. Trump has long blamed California’s environmental polices for forest mismanagement contributing to the state’s wildfires, including January’s destructive wildfires in Los Angeles.

Trump has also pointed his finger at state rules protecting endangered species for limiting the amount of water that gets sent south from Northern California. Trump has been lecturing the California governor about cleaning up forests since his first term. Newsom has also poured billions of dollars into better forest management and firefighting technology since Trump first suggested Californians “rake” their forests in his first term. But the governor’s efforts made little difference as hurricane-level winds fanned the flames through canyons in dense urban coastal neighborhoods.

Under the new Executive Order, the Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) must coordinate federal, state, tribal and local assets relating to post-fire restoration and help reduce hazardous fuels through active forest management.

The new executive order is intended to be part of a balanced approach to reduce wildfire risk rather than a blanket increase in commercial logging. The focus is on creating healthier, more fire-resistant forests through strategic thinning and fuel reduction.

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