President Trump recently signed an executive order on wildfire prevention and response.
The EO cites the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires as an impetus to consolidate federal response and mitigation tools that are housed at various agencies.
The American Public Power Association said it supports the goals of the EO as they align with the policies outlined in Resolution 25-09, “In Support of Increased Federal Efforts to Address the Growing Threats of Wildfires,” passed by APPA’s membership at the 2025 Legislative Rally in Washington, DC.
APPA lprovided details on the relevant provisions of the EO as follows:
Section 2: Streamlining Federal Wildland Governance
This section requires the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture to “consolidate their wildland fire programs to achieve the most efficient and effective use” of federal resources under their purview within 90 days.
Section 3: Encouraging Local Wildfire Preparedness and Response
This section directs the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and Homeland Security to expand local and state partnerships to reduce wildfire risk, improve response and develop “measures to incentivize responsible land management and wildfire prevention, mitigation, and response measures at the State and local levels” within 90 days.
Section 3 also directs the Secretaries of Agriculture and Commerce and all agencies represented at the National Interagency Fire Center to develop a wildfire technology roadmap that includes artificial intelligence capabilities, data sharing, modeling, forecasting for response and evacuations, and promote “risk-informed” approaches that remove barriers to wildfire prevention as directed by previous EOs within 180 days.
Section 4: Strengthening Wildfire Mitigation
This section directs the following actions within 90 days:
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator “shall review and consider modifying or rescinding… rules or policies that impede the use of appropriate, preventative prescribed fires.”
• The Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture and the EPA administrator “shall review and consider modifying… rules and policies hindering the appropriate use of fire retardant to fight wildfires.”
• The Secretaries of the Interior and Agricultures shall promote and assist with “innovative uses of woody biomass and forest products to reduce fuel loads in areas at risk of wildfires.”
• The Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Energy, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shall consider a rulemaking “to establish… best practices to reduce risk of wildfire ignition from the bulk power system without increasing costs for electric-power end users,” including removal of hazard trees along transmission corridors, vegetation management, and improved engineering.
• The Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture and the Attorney General “shall review pending and proposed wild-fire related litigation involving electrical utility companies” to ensure decisions reflect the EO and the administration’s priorities.
Section 5: Modernizing Wildfire Prevention and Response
This section directs the Department of Defense and national security staff to review and declassify “available historical satellite datasets” to assist with wildfire mitigation and response by improving modeling within 120 days.
It also directs the Interagency Fire Center, in consultation with the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce, to find and consider “eliminating or revising” rules that “impede wildfire prevention, detection, or response” and to list them in the Fall 2025 Unified Regulatory Agenda, along with developing performance metrics for wildfire response within 180 days.
Finally, this section directs the Secretary of Defense to “prioritize the sale of excess aircraft and aircraft parts” to support wildfire response agencies within 210 days.
