Wildfire Resilience Grants & Community Protection
Current understanding
Federal grant programs supporting community wildfire resilience, including the USFS Community Wildfire Defense Grant program and proposals for a new US Fire Administration (USFA) wildfire resilience grant program. Policy focus areas include home hardening, defensible space, ignition-resistant construction, and wildfire risk mapping/reporting. Legislative proposals such as HR582 (Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act) would incrementally expand eligible uses of existing grants and add new mapping/reporting requirements.
Evidence log
- 2026-07-23 — A bill to establish a grant program to promote wildfire resilience investments and a pilot program to reduce the cost burden of insurance premiums, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with wildfire-resilience-investments: Both establish federal grant vehicles for wildfire resilience; S5106 adds an insurance-premium cost-burden pilot as a distinct feature. (novelty: 3)
- 2026-03-17 — Post-Disaster Reforestation and Restoration Act: cross-connection with post-disaster-reforestation-restoration: Both authorize grants and cooperative agreements for wildfire-affected landscapes; reforestation grants extend the resilience funding chain into post-event seedling supply and replanting. (novelty: 3)
- 2026-06-15 — Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act: cross-connection with cross-boundary-wildfire-mitigation: Cross-boundary coordination study intersects with grant-funded community wildfire protection efforts that often span ownership boundaries. (novelty: 2)
- 2025-03-06 — Fix Our Forests Act: cross-connection with fireshed-management-wildfire-reduction: Fix Our Forests Act pairs fireshed designation and NEPA/ESA streamlining with community wildfire risk-reduction support that overlaps the wildfire resilience grants framework. (novelty: 3)
- 2026-02-24 — ACERO Act: cross-connection with acero-act-wildfire-uas: ACERO’s aerial response R&D complements ground-focused wildfire resilience and community protection efforts. (novelty: 3)
- 2025-02-06 — Disaster Resiliency and Coverage Act of 2025: cross-connection with fema-disaster-risk-areas-hazard-mitigation: The proposed FEMA residential mitigation grants and 30% tax credit could complement existing wildfire resilience grant programs for at-risk homeowners. (novelty: 3)
- 2026-04-17 — FENCES Act: cross-connection with ozone-naaqs-area-designations: FENCES Act connects wildfire smoke (exceptional events) to Clean Air Act nonattainment consequences, linking wildfire policy with NAAQS designation outcomes. (novelty: 3)