S. 395 — Emergency Fuel Reduction Act of 2025

This section states the purposes of the Act as (1) expediting wildfire prevention projects to reduce wildfire risk on certain high-risk federal lands adjacent to communities, private property, and critical infrastructure; (2) improving forest and wildland health; and (3) promoting recovery of threatened or endangered species, or species under consideration for listing, under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, including sage-grouse whose habitat is negatively impacted by wildland fire.

This section establishes a categorical exclusion from the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) for authorized hazardous fuel reduction projects under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 on federal lands that meet at least one of the following criteria: (1) removal of insect-infected trees, dead or dying trees, trees threatening public safety, or hazardous fuels threatening specified infrastructure (i.e., utility or communications infrastructure, municipal water supply systems, campgrounds, roadsides, schools, or other infrastructure); (2) treatment on federal lands where conditions such as wildfire risk, insect or disease epidemics, or invasive species threaten adjacent non-federal lands; or (3) treatment of 10,000 acres or less at particular wildfire risk, containing threatened or endangered species habitat, or providing conservation benefits to candidate, state-listed, or special concern species. The exclusion does not apply to lands in the National Wilderness Preservation System, where vegetation removal is prohibited by federal law, or within a national monument as of enactment. (Thus, qualifying projects avoid preparing environmental assessments or impact statements.)