Wildfire profoundly affects outdoor recreation through smoke, closures, damage to recreation infrastructure, and more. With fires becoming more frequent and more severe, there are critical opportunities for Congress and the administration to improve federal fire management.

While the number of acres burned so far in 2025 is low compared with recent years, this year has seen a number of notable large wildfires. The year began with devastating fires in L.A., which destroyed thousands of homes and rank among the costliest natural disasters in US history. Over the summer, the Dragon Bravo Fire—the largest so far in 2025—burned 145,000 acres on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, destroying numerous structures including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge. And the southern Appalachians saw a surprising number of early-season wildfires that affected a number of popular recreation areas including the Green River Narrows whitewater run and climbing at Table Rock, South Carolina.

The outdoor community sees and understands the effects of wildfire deeply, and has an important role to play to advocate for wildfire solutions. We wrote about this in our 2023 policy report, “Wildfire and Outdoor Recreation in the West: How Recreationists Can Support a Fire-Resilient Future,” which explores wildfire’s ecological and cultural role on our landscapes, why many modern fires have gotten so severe, the effects of megafires on outdoor recreation and the outdoors, and strategies for better addressing and mitigating the risk of severe fire.

Click to read our full letter to lawmakers.

Outdoor Alliance recently shared a letter encouraging lawmakers to pass a package of wildfire legislation that would help improve federal wildfire response, support wildland firefighters, and help make our communities and landscapes fire-resilient. These bills include:

National Prescribed Fire Act of 2025 (S. 2015/H.R. 3889)
Fire Information and Reaction Enhancement (FIRE) Act of 2025 (H.R. 753)
The Facilitating Increased Resilience, Environmental Weatherization And Lowered Liability (FIREWALL) Act (S. 1323)
Tribal Self-Determination and Co-Management in Forestry Act (H.R. 3444)
Tim's Act (S. 279/H.R. 743)
Wildfire Smoke Relief Act (H.R. 5481)
Modernizing Wildfire Safety and Prevention Act of 2025 (H.R.1923)

Some elements of the bills noted above are included in the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA), which is a package of fire and forestry legislation that has already moved through the House, with a companion bill introduced in the Senate over the summer. FOFA takes a number of important steps to address wildfire, including establishing an interagency Fire Intelligence Center, requiring strategic planning for fuels reduction projects, expanding community wildfire risk reduction and research programs, supporting prescribed fire, and more. However, it also includes some problematic provisions that would undermine recreation and conservation, largely by making changes to environmental laws that Outdoor Alliance finds concerning. The current text of FOFA is still being refined, and we expect additional opportunities to weigh in to revise the bill before it is finalized and voted on in the Senate.

In addition to legislative efforts, the Trump administration has put in motion a number of major changes to federal land management agencies that are already affecting fire and fuels management. While wildland firefighters were expressly excluded from the layoffs and workforce reductions instituted earlier in the year, the Forest Service lost a significant number of employees with wildfire qualifications that provided critical support during wildfires. The workforce reductions have also affected fuel reduction work including prescribed fire. For example, recent reporting shows that the Forest Service, for example, has completed significantly fewer hazardous fuels treatments in 2025 compared with last year.

The administration has also been taking steps towards consolidating wildland fire programs into a single agency that would be charged with fire suppression on all federal lands. While fully consolidating wildland fire programs requires action from Congress, both Department of Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced changes—including establishing a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service within DOI—that streamline wildfire management at both agencies but do not fully transfer wildland fire management from USDA to DOI (as was proposed in the President’s Budget).

While consolidating federal wildland fire programs has the potential to make wildfire management more efficient, Outdoor Alliance is advocating that lawmakers pursue this proposal thoughtfully and in a way that maintains the important connection between wildfire and other land management actions, such as recreation management, that federal land management agencies oversee. Separating firefighting from the other essential work of the U.S. Forest Service risks losing sight of broader land management goals, including important wildfire mitigation efforts like prescribed burns that are crucial for long-term resilience.

With so many opportunities to address and improve wildfire management, mitigation, and recovery, now is a key time for the outdoor community to speak up and encourage lawmakers to address wildfire.

How Outdoor Recreationists Can Support Wildfire Fixes