There is no debating that high intensity wildfires leave behind a devastating charred imprint on forests by killing trees, shrubs, grass, destroying root systems and opening the door to an explosion of noxious and invasive weeds and vegetation. Depending on the intensity, catastrophic wildfires may also trigger severe and dangerous erosion and mudslides.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, wildfires burned more than 14 million acres nationwide in 2024 and 2025, including the destruction of tens of thousands of homes and claiming human lives along the way. Fires also decimated vital habitat for big game, small mammals, birds, fish and other wildlife.
Seeking to reduce the risk of high intensity wildfire, improve overall forest health and enhance wildlife habitat with timely and efficient forest management practices, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) introduced the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) before the U.S. House in January 2025. House members passed it one week later when 67 Democrats joined 215 Republicans in a 279-141 bipartisan vote.
"This bipartisan legislation addresses numerous Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation priorities to improve forest management throughout the U.S. by expediting and streamlining the review of forest management projects, strengthening Good Neighbor Authority and removing the duplicative procedural requirements stemming from the Cottonwood decision," RMEF President and CEO Kyle Weaver said at the time. "This legislation reduces litigation and increases management to protect people from wildfire and ensure the future of elk, mule deer and other big game and wildlife."
Three months later, Senators John Curtis (R-UT), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT) introduced a Senate version of the bill.
Though the two pieces of legislation slightly vary, they simplify environmental reviews of forest management projects by expanding categorical exclusions, meaning agencies can do more and larger projects with expedited review criteria. The bill also reverses the Cottonwood decision, a controversial 2015 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court that frustrates forest management by requiring costly and duplicative re-consultations over endangered species even when the proposed projects are to improve wildlife habitat. The Cottonwood ruling also allows frivolous litigation to delay essential forest management projects.
In October 2025, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry passed the legislation, again in a strongly bipartisan 18-5 vote.
Science firmly supports FOFA. California and Washington created dashboards to track the impacts of fires that burned into previously treated areas. In 2025, 61 California fires burned into 100 treatments with 79 percent having a positive impact on the wildfires. From 2023 to 2025, 58 Washington fires burned into 231 treatment areas with 64 percent reporting positive outcomes.
Examples of proactive management treatment that positively impact fires (includes links to research):
- Reduced severity – Since 2000, more than three dozen peer-reviewed and published scientific papers studied 172 sites where wildfires burned into the footprint of forest management treatments. An analysis shows when wildfires burned into western conifer-forested areas previously treated with a combination of selective thinning and prescribed fire, the severity dropped by nearly 70 percent.
- Reduced smoke – In 2020, when California fires burned into areas treated with prescribed fire, the fire's severity dropped by 16 percent, resulting in a reduction of 14 percent in smoke emissions.
- Carbon storage – In 2016, when the Caldor, Dixie and North Complex Fires burned into areas of the Central Sierra previously treated with mechanical thinning, the prevalence of high-severity fire decreased by 88 percent. By 2023, nearly 75 percent of treated areas had higher carbon stores than untreated areas.
Examples of the potential of proactive management to create better outcomes (includes links to research):
- More water – Increasing the scale of thinning and prescribed fire treatments to restore pre-colonial conditions in the Sierra Nevada is expected to increase streamflows by up to 14 percent.
- Fewer extreme fires – According to researchers, future climate warming is expected to increase high intensity wildfires by 25 percent under current practices. However, increasing fuel reduction treatments across California has the potential to fully offset the expected increase in wildfire intensity due to climate change.
- More critical habitat for endangered species – If the management approach remains as is today, a complete loss of mature and old-growth forest habitat critical for the endangered Sierra Nevada fisher, a small mammal in the weasel family, is expected by 2100. But expanding the use of beneficial fire and thinning can save at least half of the currently available fisher habitat in the Sierra Nevada.
- Less smoke – Increasing the use of prescribed fire in California to treat one million acres annually could reduce smoke emissions by 655,000 tons over the next five years.
Potential environmental outcomes from extreme wildfires if a hands-off approach takes place (includes links to research):
Loss of biodiversity
- More than 4,400 terrestrial and freshwater species face worldwide threats associated with ecologically inappropriate fire regimes.
- High-intensity wildfires in California killed an estimated 13 to 19 percent of the world's giant sequoias since 2015, which could lead to a loss of mature sequoia groves.
- A 2025 study showed that areas burned by high-severity fire were largely abandoned by spotted owls, an endangered species, for at least two decades.
Loss of forests
- Increasing occurrences of high-intensity fires transform forestland into shrublands or non-native grasslands.
Degradation of air and water
- Wildfire smoke pollution has stalled or reversed the trend of air quality improvements across most of the U.S. in the past several decades.
- Post-fire runoff has severely degraded drinking water systems due to increased sediment, nutrients and heavy metals, affecting fish populations and requiring massive filtration costs.
Loss of forest carbon
- Boreal forests, once stable carbon sinks, are now releasing more carbon than they store, in part because of longer and more extreme fire seasons.
Additional studies:
"There is no 'one size fits all' for every ecology, and FOFA doesn't set arbitrary targets – it simply provides the tools we need to apply the right treatment to the right acre of forest. We have to start using those tools now to save the future of our forests, homes, families and communities," said Matt Weiner, founder and CEO of Megafire Action.
As of today, the Fix Our Forests Act is yet to go before the full Senate. Hunt 2 Conserve urges senators to schedule a vote and pass it.
About Hunt 2 Conserve
Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.
(Photo source: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)
