Western Wildfire Support Act of 2025

The Western Wildfire Support Act of 2025 aims to significantly improve federal wildfire management across various stages, from preparation to long-term recovery. It mandates enhanced transparency in federal firefighting expenditures, requiring detailed annual reports on Wildland Fire Management accounts, including specific cost breakdowns for catastrophic wildfires. The bill also directs the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to develop and routinely update strategic wildland fire management policies for firesheds on federal land, incorporating the latest science and identifying risks to communities and infrastructure. Furthermore, it requires the Secretary of Defense to enter into reciprocal agreements with states for reimbursement of fire suppression services for fires caused by military training. To bolster wildfire detection and suppression, the Act requires expediting the placement of wildfire detection equipment like sensors and cameras, expanding satellite data use, and streamlining permitting for such installations. It also promotes research and development into unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for wildfire response applications. A study is mandated to assess the impact of drone incursions on wildfire suppression efforts, examining their frequency, effects on response times and costs, and the feasibility of prevention methods. Additionally, the bill calls for a study on modernizing wildfire response technologies, including improvements to radio communications, real-time situational awareness tools, and advanced wildland fire predictive modeling . For post-fire recovery, the legislation amends the Stafford Act to allow FEMA to provide funding for online guides to assist communities and individuals with post-disaster recovery resources, including mitigation strategies for sequential hazards like post-wildfire flooding. It establishes permanent Burned Area Emergency Response Teams (BAER Teams) to coordinate immediate post-wildfire stabilization and erosion planning for up to one year. Crucially, the bill creates a Long-Term Burned Area Rehabilitation account in the Treasury, authorizing up to $100 million annually for the Department of Agriculture to fund ecosystem restoration, invasive species mitigation, and critical infrastructure repair on burned lands, prioritizing projects based on downstream water resource effects. Finally, it establishes the Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize to incentivize technological innovation for managing wildfire-related invasive species.