H.R. 4295 — Wildfire Resilient Communities Act

This section directs the Directors of the National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs (agency heads) to carry out hazardous fuels reduction projects—defined as the removal or modification of flammable vegetation or woody debris through ecologically appropriate, cost-effective, site-specific methods such as prescribed fire, thinning, brush removal, mastication, pruning, or slash treatment—on federal lands under their jurisdiction (covered land), prioritizing projects in areas (1) within or adjacent to at-risk communities (as defined in the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003), high-value watersheds, with very high wildfire hazard potential, or in fire regime I, II, or III; or (2) designed to advance two or more goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, including creating fire-adapted communities, restoring resilient landscapes, and achieving safe, effective fire response. (As background, fire regimes I, II, and III, as defined in that Act, refer to areas with natural fire return intervals of 0-35 years (low-severity), 0-35 years (mixed-severity), and 35-200 years (stand-replacement), respectively.) This section provides $30 billion from any funds in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be transferred to the agency heads on the first October 1 after enactment in accordance with an allocation formula established by the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the agency heads, to remain available until expended, with no more than 10% for administrative and planning costs. The agency heads shall accept and use the funds without further appropriation.

This section authorizes appropriations of $3 billion to the Secretary of Agriculture for the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program for FY2027 through 2031, in addition to amounts made available under current law. The program provides competitive grants to states, tribes, and local governments to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans and implement wildfire risk reduction projects in at-risk communities.

This section reauthorizes the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP)—which supports landscape-scale restoration of priority National Forest System lands through collaborative groups to improve forest conditions, reduce wildfire risks, and create local economic opportunities—at $100 million annually for FY2026 and each fiscal year thereafter (from $80 million for FY2019 through FY2023) and makes related modifications, including (1) requiring selected projects to address species or pathogens and standardized monitoring questions and indicators; (2) requiring stewardship agreements to include a Federal Government staffing plan to support collaborative processes; (3) directing the Secretary to evaluate project proposals based on use of innovative mechanisms such as good neighbor agreements (i.e., authority for states or counties to perform restoration services on federal lands), wildfire risk reduction or ecological restoration across ownerships including the wildland-urban interface, and enhancement of watershed health and drinking water sources; (4) increasing the maximum number of selected projects to 20 (from 10) and additional projects per fiscal year to 4 (from 2); and (5) authorizing use of funds for conflict resolution or collaborative governance training, in addition to woody biomass utilization.

This section establishes the County Stewardship Fund in the U.S. Treasury, administered by the Secretary of Agriculture, to distribute payments to counties from stewardship contracting projects conducted by the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management on federal lands within those counties. (Stewardship contracting authorizes contracts with private or public entities for land management goals such as road and trail maintenance, prescribed fire setting, vegetation removal to reduce fire hazards, watershed restoration, and noxious weed control, with timber or forest product value applied as an offset against service costs.) Each fiscal year, for each such contract, the fund receives deposits equal to the greater of (1) 25% of the appraised value of sold forest products, transferred from the general fund of the Treasury, or (2) 25% of excess receipts authorized under subsection (g)(2); amounts remain available until expended. Each fiscal year, the fund distributes to each qualifying county a payment equal to 25% of receipts generated from contracts performed on federal lands in that county during the prior fiscal year, usable by the county for any governmental purpose.