NFPA Journal - Winter 2022 - 52

THE VIEW
Wildfire by Michele Steinberg
Fiscal Folly
THE US GOVERNMENT HAS COMMITTED $3 BILLION TO FUND WILDFIRE
MITIGATION EFFORTS, BUT THE MONEY IS WRAPPED IN RED TAPE
T
here was joy in the wildfire
world last year when
the $1 trillion Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs
Act took effect. The legislation
addresses a number of complex
problems facing the country and includes
a significant amount of funding-more
than $3 billion-across multiple agencies
to apply to the wildfire disaster problem.
That initial blush has already worn off.
In May, NFPA convened a summit that
included representatives from nearly 40
wildfire stakeholder organizations, and
the consensus on funding for communitylevel
wildfire risk reduction to property
was anything but joyous. Yes, money is now
directed toward the problem of homes at
risk, what we typically refer to as the wildland/urban
interface. But governments are
faced with the challenge of untangling the
snarls of red tape that prevent those dollars
from being applied to making homes and
communities more wildfire resilient.
At the May summit, participants spent
an intensive day-and-a-half session digging
into the gnarly issue of existing properties at risk to wildfire.
The challenges of applying funding to retrofit and mitigate
homes and neighborhoods quickly became clear. Funding is
siloed within multiple agencies and programs. No single federal
agency addresses wildfire mitigation at the community or
property level. Current program requirements for environmental
review conflict with state-level rules. Programs are designed to
fund large-scale infrastructure projects rather than home-level
upgrades across neighborhoods. Many communities, counties,
and states lack the capacity to manage major grant programs or
provide technical assistance to access the funds. The list goes on.
Headwaters Economics recently conducted an independent
analysis of one of the major sources of hazard mitigation funding-the
Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities
program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency-and found that, over the past few years, projects were
52 | NFPA JOURNAL * WINTER 2022
An analysis of one
major funding source
found that projects
had been funded in
only a few states,
with grants going to
relatively affluent
communities.
funded in only a few states, with grants
going to relatively affluent communities.
Money is scarce for high-risk rural
communities that can't meet the financial-match
requirements.
This country must address the vulnerability
of homes and communities to wildfire
now. Decades of experience and fire science
research have demonstrated that we have
the knowledge and the technology to make
homes safer from the wildfire threat. We
know that this cannot be accomplished
without mitigation applied at the individual
structure and parcel level, and across
adjacent properties. Despite what we know,
and despite funding wildfire risk reduction
measures, vulnerable populations living in
wildfire risk areas today have little to no
support, funding, or technical assistance to
enable these urgent home safety measures.
The situation calls for dramatic
change. To support this change, there
should be clear wildfire mitigation leaders
at all levels of government, especially
at the county level. The recent growth in
congressional funding for mitigation and
infrastructure is important. But solving this will also require
establishing a reliable, transparent, and easy-to-access strategy
for obtaining those funds and implementing communitywide
solutions. It also must be a long-term, sustained investment
with permanent funding streams.
The report on the summit, " Policy Recommendations to
Reduce Home and Community Loss from Wildfire " (available
at nfpa.org/outthinkwildfire), recommends actions ranging
from pilot programs at the county level to a detailed analysis of
the opportunities and barriers for wildfire mitigation funding.
Armed with knowledge and funding, NFPA and like-minded
stakeholders now have clear direction to eliminate obstacles in
the policy arena that prevent us from achieving our bold goal of
ending the destruction of communities by wildfire.
MICHELE STEINBERG is director of the Wildfire Division at NFPA.
FROM NFPA'S
WILDFIRE DIVISION
MICHAEL HOEWELER
http://www.nfpa.org/outthinkwildfire
NFPA Journal - Winter 2022

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