Wildfire Bill Mandates 10% Annual Increase in Controlled Burns, Offers Hazard Pay to Federal Firefighters

The National Prescribed Fire Act of 2025 is the policy equivalent of trading in a fire hose for a box of matches—in a good way. This bill is a massive push to fundamentally change how the federal government manages forests by prioritizing controlled burns, or “prescribed fire.” It aims to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires by intentionally burning off dangerous fuel loads under safe conditions.

What’s the big deal? The bill mandates a 10% increase in prescribed fire acreage every year for the next decade (Sec. 103). It also gives the Departments of Agriculture and Interior the flexibility to use up to 15% of their hazardous fuels budget for prescribed fire activities, including grants to states, Tribes, and nonprofits (Sec. 102). If you live anywhere near the wildland-urban interface, this means you can expect a lot more controlled smoke in the air, but hopefully a lot less uncontrolled wildfire smoke down the line.

The Mandate: Burn More, Faster

The most aggressive part of this legislation is the mandatory 10% annual increase in acreage treated with controlled burns. This is a huge operational lift. Think of it like this: if the Forest Service burned 1 million acres this year, they must burn 1.1 million next year, 1.21 million the year after, and so on. For the agencies, this means they can’t just coast; they have to staff up and plan years ahead to meet these escalating targets. While the goal is necessary for forest health, this pace could force agencies to operate under tight schedules, potentially increasing the risk of burns escaping if conditions aren't perfect, or leading to more intense smoke impacts for communities nearby.

To help meet this goal, the bill allows land managers to use a Landscape-Scale Prescribed Fire Plan (Sec. 2). Once this large-scale plan is completed, it covers the environmental review for all future prescribed burns within that area for up to 10 years. For busy land managers, this is a huge time-saver, cutting through the red tape of doing a separate environmental assessment for every single burn. For the public, however, it means the detailed environmental scrutiny happens once, up front, potentially limiting opportunities for public input on specific future burns.

Protecting Partners and Paying Firefighters

One of the biggest hurdles for getting controlled burns done is finding enough trained people and managing the legal risk. This bill tackles both.

First, it extends federal liability protection to non-federal partners—like private contractors, state crews, or nonprofits—who are helping the government conduct a prescribed fire under federal supervision (Sec. 203). Essentially, if a burn goes wrong, the liability falls to the federal government, not the local partner. This is a game-changer for collaboration, as it removes a major financial risk that often kept local groups from helping out on federal land.

Second, the bill addresses the workforce crunch. Federal employees involved in lighting or managing prescribed fires will now be eligible for hazard pay (Sec. 202). This is critical because historically, federal firefighters made more money working on wildfire suppression than on proactive fuel reduction, creating a financial incentive to wait for the fire to start. Now, the pay scale is leveling out, which should help retain skilled personnel in the less-glamorous but vital work of prevention.

New Career Paths and Funding for Local Efforts

This Act also creates new pathways into the federal workforce. It allows for the noncompetitive conversion of seasonal federal firefighters to permanent status, provided their new job focuses heavily on prescribed fire implementation (Sec. 202). More controversially, the Secretaries must work with the Attorney General to create career paths for certain formerly incarcerated individuals who served on wildland fire crews during their time in prison (Sec. 202). This provides a valuable second chance and taps into a trained labor pool.

For local groups, the bill establishes a new Collaborative Prescribed Fire Program (Sec. 104). This program can spend up to $20 million annually on projects that cover at least 50,000 acres, provided the projects are collaborative, protect old-growth forests, and bring in matching non-federal funds. However, the funding cap is strict—no single project can receive more than $1 million per year, which may be a tight budget for a project covering such a large area.

Finally, the bill has a sharp administrative bite: states that fail to report their annual prescribed fire data to the National Fire Planning and Operations Database by December 31st will lose out on all funding from the previous fiscal year (Sec. 301). This high-stakes administrative penalty ensures data collection is prioritized, but it could severely impact a state agency that misses the deadline due to a simple administrative oversight.