S. 140 — Wildfire Prevention Act of 2025

This section requires the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, for federal lands, to determine baseline annual acres treated by mechanical thinning (commercial and pre-commercial) and prescribed fire during FY2019 through FY2023. It further requires those Secretaries to establish annual treatment goals for FY2025 and subsequent years that are not less than the baseline average for FY2025-FY2026, at least 20% above baseline for FY2027-FY2028, and at least 40% above baseline for FY2029 and thereafter; assign acreage allotments by National Forest System region or state within 90 days of enactment and annually thereafter; and publish all related data on agency websites. (These fuels reduction and forest health treatments complement the existing requirement to treat 10,000,000 acres of very high wildfire hazard potential federal, Indian forest, or rangeland in the wildland-urban interface or public drinking water source areas by September 30, 2027.) The section specifies that establishing goals and allotments is not subject to NEPA and does not supersede other laws, including that 10,000,000-acre treatment mandate or the Wilderness Act.

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture (acting through the Forest Service) and the Secretary of the Interior (acting through the Bureau of Land Management) to publish annual reports on public websites of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management—not later than September 30, 2025, and annually thereafter—detailing the following information for Federal lands during the preceding fiscal year: (1) acres treated pursuant to section 40803(b) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(b)); (2) acres mechanically thinned, acres treated by prescribed fire, and whether those totals met or exceeded the acres specified in section 101(b)(2); (3) limitations or challenges (e.g., litigation or delays in environmental documentation) hindering achievement of annual goals under section 101(b)(1), if applicable; (4) acres undergoing regeneration harvest; (5) acres under (2) and (4) in areas with high insect/disease risk (i.e., at least 25% projected mortality of live basal area over 15 years per the National Insect and Disease Composite Risk Map) or very high/high wildfire hazard potential; (6) acres under (2) and (4) using streamlined environmental review authorities (i.e., categorical exclusions or emergency actions); and (7) acres under (2) and (4) accomplished with partners via good neighbor agreements (16 U.S.C. 2113a), master stewardship agreements, Tribal Forest Protection Act agreements (25 U.S.C. 3115a), or stewardship end-result contracts.

This section requires the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to include in materials supporting the President's annual budget submission under 31 U.S.C. 1105 a report on hazardous fuels reduction activities (i.e., treatments to mitigate wildfire risk on federal lands) on federal lands for each of the preceding six fiscal years. For FY2025 through 2030, the report assesses treated acres using both the Secretaries' existing methodology and a new methodology (which records each treated acre once per fiscal year regardless of multiple treatments and includes data on wildland-urban interface location, initial and final wildfire risk levels, activity types by wildfire management or planned project, cost per acre, region or system unit, and effectiveness in reducing wildfire risk); for FY2031 and thereafter, it uses the new methodology only. The section further directs the Secretaries to implement standardized data tracking procedures within 90 days of enactment—including regular data reviews and verification, effectiveness analysis, and wildland-urban interface delineation—and submit to Congress, within 14 days thereafter, a report describing those procedures and recommendations to address data limitations; all budget reports must be publicly available on department websites.

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, to determine—using data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis program—the net forest carbon balance on National Forest System lands in each Forest Service region (i.e., whether a net carbon source or sink). The Secretary must complete this determination not later than September 30, 2025, and every three years thereafter, and publish the results on the Forest Service website.

This section directs the Secretary concerned to submit to the Committees on Energy and Natural Resources and Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committees on Natural Resources and Agriculture of the House of Representatives, not later than 18 months after enactment, a report on existing key performance indicators and potential outcome-based performance measures to reduce wildfire risk on federal land. The report must identify solutions to track the implementation and effectiveness of hazardous fuels reduction activities and forest restoration treatments, including strategies (1) to track whether land management activities are reducing wildfire hazards and ways to quantify and track acres in maintenance status; (2) to track place-based and locally led outcomes; (3) to standardize national-level monitoring measures; (4) to quantify catastrophic wildfire risk reduction; (5) to identify modeling and data challenges preventing the transition to annual wildfire risk mapping updates; and (6) to integrate advanced technologies or a combination of technologies and analyses that will benefit the quality of information reported.

This section (1) revises the definition of hazard tree under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to include any tree or part thereof likely to come within 50 feet (from 10 feet) of an electric power line if it fails; and (2) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior (for public lands) or Secretary of Agriculture (for National Forest System lands) to include in special use permits or easements permission for owners or operators of electric transmission or distribution facilities to cut and remove trees or vegetation near such facilities without a separate timber sale, if consistent with the applicable vegetation management plan, land and resource management plan or land use plan, and environmental laws. Special use permits or easements granting such permission must require owners or operators to remit to the applicable Secretary any proceeds from selling removed material, less transportation costs incurred; however, owners or operators are not required to sell such material. (Thus, these changes facilitate proactive vegetation management on federal lands abutting electric transmission and distribution rights-of-way to enhance grid reliability, public safety, and wildfire risk reduction.)

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture, not later than one year after enactment, to develop a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) for high-priority hazard tree activities on National Forest System lands, limited to projects of no more than 3,000 acres. High-priority hazard trees are standing trees determined by the Secretary to pose a visible hazard to people or federal property due to conditions such as root damage or lean, highly likely to fail and cause injury or damage, and located (1) within 300 feet of a National Forest System road with maintenance level 3, 4, or 5; (2) along a National Forest System trail; or (3) in a developed recreation site operated and maintained by the Secretary. Such activities include pruning, felling, and disposal to mitigate risks but exclude actions in wilderness or wilderness study areas, for permanent road or trail construction, in congressionally or presidentially restricted vegetation removal areas, inconsistent with applicable land and resource management plans, or in inventoried roadless areas. In developing and applying the exclusion, the Secretary must comply with NEPA and extraordinary circumstances procedures under 36 C.F.R. § 220.6 (or successor regulations). (As background, NEPA categorical exclusions allow federal agencies to forgo environmental assessments or impact statements for actions normally having no significant environmental effect.)

This section entitles units of local government and Indian Tribes to intervene as of right in civil actions relating to qualified projects and deems them full participants in related settlement negotiations if they intervene. A qualified project is one located on federal land adjacent to—or with sufficient minimum contacts, as determined by the Secretary concerned, to—land under the jurisdiction of such a unit or Tribe; approved by the Secretary concerned; and either reduces wildfire, insect, or disease risk or generates revenue from timber harvesting.

This section directs the Secretary concerned to develop and submit to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Natural Resources, not later than 18 months after enactment, a strategy analyzing opportunities to use livestock grazing as a wildfire risk reduction tool on federal lands consistent with applicable laws. The strategy must analyze opportunities to (1) increase use of grazing authorities including permit or lease modifications for variances, targeted grazing to reduce hazardous fuels, integration of advanced technologies for dynamic livestock placement, grazing to eradicate invasive annual grasses or for post-fire restoration, and expedited temporary use of vacant allotments during extreme weather or natural disasters; and (2) other appropriate opportunities as determined by the Secretary. This section does not affect existing livestock grazing programs or their statutory authorities.

This section directs the Secretary concerned, not later than three years after the date of enactment, to use at least one of six specified streamlined environmental review authorities—including the collaborative forest restoration project categorical exclusion (16 U.S.C. 6591b(a))—for each unit of federal land that contains land described in section 102(5). The authorities are (1) HFRA §603(a); (2) HFRA §605(a); (3) HFRA §606(b); (4) Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act §40806(b); (5) Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act §40807; and (6) Wildfire Suppression Funding and Forest Management Activities Act §207. (As background, these authorities provide NEPA categorical exclusions or exemptions from special administrative review processes for hazardous fuels reduction, restoration treatments, and wildfire prevention projects, typically limited to 3,000 acres in fire-prone areas.)

This section establishes a deployment and testbed pilot program, to be set up by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior (acting jointly), in coordination with specified federal agencies (covered agencies), within 60 days of enactment, to test new and innovative wildfire prevention, detection, communication, and mitigation technologies through public-private partnerships with private entities, nonprofits, and institutions of higher education (covered entities). In operating the pilot program, the Secretaries must (1) incorporate it into an existing interagency coordinating group on wildfires; (2) identify key technology priority areas (e.g., hazardous fuels reduction, dispatch communications, remote sensing, safety equipment, and operational dashboards); and (3) connect selected covered entities with covered agencies for real-time testing during wildland fire activities and training, prioritizing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum sensing, augmented reality, and 5G networks. The Secretaries must conduct outreach by publicizing priority areas and inviting applications from covered entities; submit annual reports to designated congressional committees through the pilot program's duration, detailing participants, technologies tested, costs, outreach, and recommendations for scaled adoption; and terminate the pilot program seven years after enactment.