Fix Our Forests IV. Title II: Protecting Communities in the Wildland-Urban Interface

It wasn’t until I got to this section that I put some of the pieces together.

There are actually three pieces with three different sets of players.
I. Fireshed Center
Who: Every Agency Except EPA
Purpose: Predicting fire and smoke and informing people on the ground. Not clear how differing views on modeling would be incorporated, or exactly what “coordination” means.

Odd thing: streamline procurement processes and cybersecurity systems related to addressing wildland fire and smoke;
Could be interpreted: ease giving funds to our friends. Is cybersecurity a problem? Seems like arsonists are..

This strikes me as less of a traditional model of useful science (talk to users and develop appropriate) than “we’ll develop it without you and tell you you’re unscientific if you don’t use it.”
If you were on the Wildfire Commission, I’d be interested in whether this was noted or discussed in any way.

II. Fireshed Assessments

Who: Reps of States, Feds and Tribes and local governments if they ask.
Purpose: Figuring out what makes, for lack of a better word, a cohesive strategy for a given fireshed (what should be done where).

Here’s the info they’re using for fireshed assessments:

(A) MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING.—In carrying out a fireshed assessment under this subsection, the Secretary concerned may enter into memorandums of understanding with other Federal agencies or departments, States, Indian Tribes, private entities, or research or educational institutions to improve, with respect to such assessment, the use and integration of—

(i) advanced remote sensing and geospatial technologies;

(ii) statistical modeling and analysis; or

(iii) any other technology or combination of technologies and analyses that the Secretary concerned determines will benefit the quality of information of such an assessment.

(B) BEST AVAILABLE SCIENCE.—In using the best available science for the fireshed assessments completed under subsection (a)(1), the Secretary concerned and Governor shall, to the maximum extent practicable, incorporate—

(i) traditional ecological knowledge from Indian Tribes;

(ii) data from State forest action plans and State wildfire risk assessments;

(iii) data from the Fireshed Registry maintained under section 103; and

(iv) data from other Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments or agencies.

What they’re saying is that the Fireshed Centers going to put a great deal of $ into developing a variety of tools, some of which won’t be online in time to help with Fireshed Assessments.
What’s also interesting to me is what role agencies like DOD and DHS have in this, which seems to be none. So why are they there in the Fireshed Center? Maybe it makes some sense to coherently separate new suppression technologies from more generalized “we think it would be helpful” modeling.

And so now we come to..
III. Community wildfire risk reduction program.

a) Establishment.—Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries shall jointly establish an interagency program to be known as the “Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program” that shall consist of at least one representative from each of the following:

(1) The Office of Wildland Fire of the Department of the Interior.

(2) The National Park Service.

(3) The Bureau of Land Management.

(4) The United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

(5) The Bureau of Indian Affairs.

(6) The Forest Service.

(7) The Federal Emergency Management Agency.

(8) The United States Fire Administration.

(9) The National Institute of Standards and Technology.

OK, so this time they rounded up the usual federal agency suspects..

(b) Purpose.—The purpose of the program established under subsection (a) is to support interagency coordination in reducing the risk of, and the damages resulting from, wildfires in communities (including tribal communities) in the wildland-urban interface through—

(1) advancing research and science in wildfire resilience and land management, including support for non-Federal research partnerships;

(2) supporting adoption by Indian Tribes and local governmental entities of fire-resistant building methods, codes, and standards;

(3) supporting efforts by Indian Tribes or local governmental entities to address the effects of wildland fire on such communities, including property damages, air quality, and water quality;

(4) encouraging public-private partnerships to conduct hazardous fuels management activities in the wildland-urban interface;

Whoa.. I think we have plenty of people funded by current agencies who study wildfire resilience and land management. What is the role of these agencies in “supporting adoption of fire-resistant building codes, etc?” Is that technical assistance? What work is it to “encourage public-private partnerships?” Doesn’t doing WUI fuel treatment overlap a bit with Fireshed Assessments?

(5) providing technical and financial assistance targeted towards communities, including tribal communities, through streamlined and unified technical assistance and grant management mechanisms, including the portal and grant application established under subsection (c), to—

(A) encourage critical risk reduction measures on private property with high wildfire risk exposure in such communities; and

(B) mitigate costs for and improve capacity among such communities.

(c) Portal and uniform grant application.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—As part of the program established under subsection (a), the Secretaries and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency shall establish a portal through which a person may submit a single, uniform application for any of the following:

(A) A community wildfire defense grant under section 40803(f) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(f)).

(B) An emergency management performance grant under section 662 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (6 U.S.C. 761).

(C) A grant under section 33 of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 2229).

(D) A grant under section 34 of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 (15 U.S.C. 2229a).

(E) Financial or technical assistance or a grant under sections 203, 205, 404, 406, or 420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5133, 5135, 5170c, 5172, 5187).

(2) SIMPLIFICATION OF APPLICATION.—In establishing the portal and application under paragraph (1), the Secretaries and the Administrator shall seek to reduce the complexity and length of the application process for the grants described in paragraph (1).

(3) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretaries shall provide technical assistance to communities or persons seeking to apply for financial assistance through the portal using the application established under paragraph (1).

(d) Sunset.—The program established under this section shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment of this Act.

It seems like we might not need Community Navigators for specific communities if they did this simplification and standardization. Honestly, it’s not clear to me why Congress has to tell them to do this, they should probably have thought of it on their own. Again, this could use a formal evaluation.

SEC. 202. Community wildfire defense research program.
(a) In general.—The Secretaries shall, acting jointly, expand the Joint Fire Science Program to include a performance-driven research and development program known as the “Community Wildfire Defense Research Program” for the purpose of testing and advancing innovative designs to create or improve the wildfire-resistance of structures and communities.

(b) Program priorities.—In carrying out the program established under subsection (a), the Secretaries shall evaluate opportunities to create wildfire-resistant structures and communities through—

(1) different affordable building materials, including mass timber;

(2) home hardening, including policies to incentivize and incorporate defensible space;

(3) subdivision design and other land use planning and design;

(4) landscape architecture; and

(5) other wildfire-resistant designs, as determined by the Secretary.

(c) Community wildfire defense innovation prize.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the program established under subsection (a), the Secretaries shall carry out a competition through which a person may submit to the Secretaries innovative designs for the creation or improvement of an ignition-resistant structure or fire-adapted communities.

(2) PRIZE.—Subject to the availability of appropriations made in advance for such purpose, the Secretaries may award a prize under the competition described in paragraph (1), based on criteria established by the Secretaries and in accordance with paragraph (3).

(3) SCALE.—In awarding a prize under paragraph (2), the Secretaries shall prioritize for an award designs with the most potential to scale to existing infrastructure.

(d) Sunset.—The program established under subsection (a) shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment of this Act.

This seems like a great idea and to run it through JFSP.
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So for me, there are great concrete ideas here.. simplify, streamline, do research via JFSP, and there are fuzzier, with some potential overlaps with Fireshed Assessments. Then there is a potential agency clusterf with tasks of “advancing, supporting and encouraging.” Here’s my thing, if we can’t imagine what it would be like to put this in a person’s job description in terms of specific accomplishments, maybe it’s not ready for prime time.

I know that a way for R’s and D’s to come together is to hand out funding to preferred folks (pork-swapping) but I, perhaps naively, think that there are other things we could agree on that wouldn’t add unnecessarily to the deficit.