Page 127 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

Wildfire The Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August 2022, together mark the largest investment in climate solutions in American history. Together, they allocate more than a trillion dollars to infrastructure modernization and include millions of dollars in new funding to protect communities from wildfires. But although the new legislation pledges to make more than four million acres of public and private forests across the nation more resilient, more than four million acres in California alone have been lost to wildfire in just two years. The country needs new ways to engage businesses and the public considering the gap between available funds and the cost of necessary mitigation actions. Understanding the priorities and realities across different regions is crucial, and a geographic approach can help address the droughts and climate-related changes that create incendiary conditions. It allows us to divide and conquer with maps, apps, and data that can be tailored to every organization and individual from the landscape scale to individual properties with guidance on what we can do to save the forests we love. Land management agencies, local governments, and state emergency management agencies have been assessing properties and giving homeowners tailored maps of what trees, bushes, and other vegetation they should cut. These smart maps go a long way in reducing damages, with proven results. The combined efforts of individuals and private- and public- sector actors help reduce the danger and negative impacts, but we could be doing more to coordinate the work in every county, town, and state. More than 22,000 firefighters battle blazes using shared maps with support from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). They can see each other's actions and the progress being made on every fire. The operational view helps the cadre of wildfire professionals see and act as one during incidents. Likewise, we need a mitigation view to abate the danger presented by tinder-dry forests with high wildfire risk from extreme weather events, such as Santa Ana winds in Southern California which predominate every fall. Wildfires will continue no matter what, and they are necessary for ecological health across landscapes, but there's a lot we can do to deal with the extremes. Reducing fuels by thinning forests and using prescribed burns when conditions are appropriate has proven to abate the intensity of a fire. When a fire burns severely, it can cause the soil to repel water, which leads to erosion, landslides, and floods. Taking mitigation measures in advance will reduce the recovery time if a wildfire occurs. Considering the stakes, landowners should take steps to safeguard their property against damage from wildfire. Mitigation measures include thinning trees, hardening homes and infrastructure, and following fire-resistant landscaping practices. It is important for county and fire districts to show progress by sharing mitigation measures through maps and dashboards. When we're all working together and can see each other's work, it builds community bonds and strengthens overall mitigation efforts. A shared map provides common ground to prioritize our actions, put funding to work where it's most needed, and rally all resources and assets to the cause. Technology is the easy part. Many land management agencies, local governments, and emergency response organizations already use these mapping tools. We need only to extend them to more stakeholders. If we all share maps and take action where needed, we can tackle the wildfire threat together. In a world that's too divided, saving our forests is an easy common cause, and maps can guide us there. 126