Bipartisan bill addresses wildfire crisis with comprehensive approach | Opinion

To understand the voracious appetite of California wildfires in the past decade, you need to realize that 75% of the state’s most destructive conflagrations have happened since 2015.

The September 2020 Creek Fire burned 379,895 acres and destroyed 856 residential structures in the mountains east of Fresno and Madera counties. A month earlier, the August Complex Fire, which remains the state’s most destructive wildfire, destroyed more than 1 million acres and 935 structures in northern California.

The second most destructive wildfire is the July 2021 Dixie Fire (963,309 acres; 1,311 structures), followed by the July 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire (459,123 acres; 280 structures).

That devastation — and the federal and state dollars it burns through in suppression and prevention costs — has caught the attention of California Senator Alex Padilla, who is pushing the bipartisan Fix Our Forest Act to reduce wildfire risk, restore forest health and streamline forest management.

The legislation would create a national Wildfire Intelligence Center to streamline federal response to wildfires and create “a whole-of-government approach to combat wildfires.”

“Wildfires don’t distinguish between our boundaries, and we can’t afford to be siloed in our response,” Padilla said in a press statement. “The scale of the wildfire crisis demands a singular, whole-of-government wildfire intelligence center to foster cross-agency collaboration and save lives.”

We believe this is the right response to deal with the proliferation of wildfires and their negative impact on forests and people.

The financial impact of this year’s wildfires in California, including the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles, is staggering: more than $250 billion in total economic losses and insured losses of $75 billion.

Federal spending on fire suppression on federal lands averaged $2.5 billion between 2016 and 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Spending by the U.S. Forest Service on fire suppression will increase to $3.9 billion by 2050, according to a since-deleted 2025 study by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

In 2023, an analysis by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee found that wildfires cause between $394 billion and $893 billion in annual damages, including lost income, plummeting real estate values, timber loss, health costs, federal suppression costs and insurance payouts.

Then there are the special costs that can add billions more, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association. “This includes the suffering of humans, animals, nature, loss of life and ongoing health concerns,” the association said in its website. “The impact on human health can be costly, but difficult to account for.”

The legislation has no dollars attached to it, but Padilla and three other leading Senators are concurrently working to secure “robust funding” through the budget process to support the legislation’s goals once it becomes law.

Padilla joined Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat from Colorado, and Republican Sens. John Curtis of Utah and Tim Sheehy of Montana to push the Fix Our Forest Act through the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on Oct. 21. Padilla’s office expects a full vote in the Senate in the upcoming weeks.

“The status quo around wildfires isn’t working and far too many Americans have paid the price,” Padilla said. “The families I’ve met who have lost everything to the devastation in Los Angeles and in wildfire disasters across the country deserve action.”

The 176-page bill, in addition to creating a national Wildfire Intelligence Center, would also:

The legislation is endorsed by scores of elected officials and organizations ranging from the Western Governors Association to the National Audubon Society to the International Association of Fire Chiefs to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Noticeably absent from the list of supporters is Sen. Adam Schiff, one of five members of the Senate Agriculture Committee on the losing end of an 18-5 vote on Oct. 21. His concerns centered on fears the bill’s expedited procedures could weaken environmental oversight and limit public participation. Schiff also criticized the shortening of the review period for legal challenges from six years to 150 days.

Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig, a Republican whose district includes areas devastated by the Creek Fire, supports the bill primarily because of language that would streamline the National Environmental Policy Act, a federal equivalent of the California Environmental Quality Act.

“We need streamlined processes when it comes to environmental review, especially for the urban wildland interface,” said Magsig, who also supports provisions to create firewise communities. “I like the fact that it’s bipartisan. It’s critical for Republicans, Democrats (and) Independents to come together when it comes to managing our forests better.”

Magsig notes the lack of language addressing timber harvesting, an issue he believes needs to be addressed to clear forests of dead trees and underbrush that could feed a massive wildfire. He would also like to see a comeback of the mill industry that flourished in California up through the 1960s.

Padilla’s office said the legislation focuses on cutting down dead and pest-infected trees, and creating firebreaks. Any economic goals like timber harvesting — which some environmental groups have opposed — would have to go through a public process, his office said.

The House Committee on Natural Resources has crafted its own Fix Our Forest Act but has yet to make it out of committee hearings. Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, worked with committee chair Bruce Westerman of Arkansas.

Among its cosponsors are California Democrats Jim Costa of Fresno, Josh Harder of Tracy, Ami Bera of Sacramento and Adam Gray of Merced. Republican cosponsors include Kevin Kiley of Roseville, Vince Fong of Bakersfield, Tom McClintock of El Dorado Hills and David Valadao of Hanford.

We believe it is time for our elected officials to work together to develop a better way to deal with a wildfire crisis that has cost us billions. The Senate version is comprehensive and is one we support at this point.

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