MEMO: Protecting Communities from Wildfire

*** Senior Sierra Club policy staff and spokespeople are available to discuss reducing climate pollution and increasing community resilience and preparedness against wildfires. ***

From the fires to the heatwaves, sea-level rise, blackouts, and more, the climate crisis is here. A changing climate has increased the risk of unnaturally large and more frequent and dangerous fires. The long-term safety of our communities relies on reducing climate pollution, preserving forests to draw down climate pollution and moving away from polluting fuels, and supporting community resilience and preparedness against fires. 

The Climate crisis has transformed fire “season” into a year-long concern, and the response should be focused on building resilient and safe communities

• Large fires are occurring more often as a result of a combination of rising temperatures, early snow melt, dry conditions, and in some places a history of poor forest management.

• Fire season today is 20% longer than it was 35 years ago as a result of rising global temperatures, and is expected to continue expanding to cover more areas of the U.S.

• We need fire-smart communities: making structures fire safe, creating adequate defensible space around structures, establishing strategic fuel breaks near communities, and considering land planning safeguards that prevent new homes from being built in high risk fire areas.

Sierra Club supports federal efforts to provide needed funds to aid communities with fire defense planning, focusing on the most vulnerable 

• One way to protect all communities from wildland fires is through cost share grants to create defensible space and fire-safe retrofits to protect structures.

• Fire prevention dollars should be focused on areas near where people live and work, also known as the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).

• Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Forest Service Chief Randy Moore launched a comprehensive response to the nation’s growing wildfire crisis. The Sierra Club remains interested in supporting community protection aspects of this strategy, especially as it relates to local investments to meaningfully and equitably protect homes and properties.

• Sierra Club encourages the Forest Service to use sound science and appropriate processes to ensure communities and natural resources are protected.

When managing forests, we should encourage policies that protect and restore mature and old-growth forests and trees 

• Bigger, older trees are most resistant to fire and store the most carbon in the forest and on the landscape, which will also help reduce the future impacts of climate change

• Allowing older trees and forests to grow will draw down the atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide that drives extreme fire weather like hot temperatures, drought, and high winds, which contribute to larger and more intense wildfires.