UNITED STATES — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest $63 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to expand wildfire barriers, known as fuel breaks, to protect communities and firefighters in Wyoming and across the West.

Fuel breaks slow a fire’s spread, create a safe zone for firefighters to work and a safer place to conduct hazardous fuel reduction treatments like prescribed burns.

This new round of investments will support projects in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Oregon and South Dakota to improve firefighter response, protect critical infrastructure and natural resources, ensure clean drinking water, support local timber industries, enhance rural economies and create jobs.

“For nearly a decade, scientists at the USDA Forest Service and risk management experts have tested and refined building these defensible spaces before a wildfire starts,” said Secretary Vilsack.

These opportunities were identified through a cross-boundary process that brings together Tribes, local wildland fire managers, business owners, elected officials and scientists to plan for future fires. In addition to using the best available science about fire operations and risks to communities, ecosystems and responders, this process supports the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy as well as complementary fuels treatment efforts.

Through this planning process, the Forest Service works with local communities to identify fire barriers such as roads, rivers and other landscape features that can prevent wildfires from spreading. In 2015, scientists at the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station began work with research universities, federal agencies, states and independent land and resource management partners to identify these fire barriers in the development of wildfire strategies.

Reinforcing these barriers and constructing adjacent fuel breaks will help reduce the risk of high-severity wildfires in the project areas. All of these areas are in, or adjacent to, high-risk fire sheds that are outside of the initial 21 Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscapes.

Learn more about how USDA is confronting the wildfire crisis on the Forest Service website.