wildfire mitigation News

Biden Administration Unveils ‘Wildfire Crisis Strategy’ for Western States

The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled a 10-year plan to treat and maintain millions of additional acres of forests in the western United States to reduce the severity of seasonal wildfires. “We’re not going to stop fires,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary …

How Technology Can Be Used to Lessen the Damage from Natural Disasters

In 2020 alone, more than 10.3 million acres were burned by wildfires across the United States, a level three times higher than the 10-year average from 1990 to 2000 10. Between fire suppression costs, direct and indirect costs, wildfires in …

New Mercury Insurance Programs Target California Homeowners’ Wildfire Risk

Mercury Insurance has launched two new programs designed to help Californians better protect their homes and families if they live in areas prone to wildfires. Homeowners who take one or more steps to either harden their homes against wildfires or …

Roadmaps for Wildfire Mitigation Provide Guidance for Suburban Neighborhoods

New wildfire guidelines from an insurance industry home safety organization offer guidance for adapting suburban communities to the growing threat of wildfire. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) said its Suburban Wildfire Adaptation Roadmaps offer a detailed …

How Forested Communities Are Trying to Adapt to Growing Wildfire Threat

Unless it’s Sunday, Kelly Loew is steering her rusty red Jeep down the same mail route in Shingletown, as she has six days a week for the last seven years. But she delivers less mail these days as California’s persistent …

Burns & Wilcox to Offer Wildfire Management Services to Policyholders in the West

Burns & Wilcox has formed an exclusive partnership with Wildfire Defense Systems, Inc. (WDS) to provide WDS’ full suite of wildfire prevention and mitigation services to homeowners, with no minimum property value required to participate. Services will be available on …

Burning Down a House to Show How to Build for Wildfire Defense

After only a year into his job as CEO and president of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, Roy Wright is setting the place on fire. The IBHS conducted a demonstration in early March simulating an active wildfire …

Assessing Effects of Government Shutdown on Wildfires, Workforce, Research

The government may be reopening, but the consequences of the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history are likely to linger for national parks, forests, the federal workforce and cutting-edge scientific research. Some may even be permanent. Many fire crews missed …

Solutions to Wildfires in Time of Climate Change Are Costly, Unpopular

California’s deadly wildfires have a straightforward solution, experts say: stop building homes in places that are likely to burn — and make homes that already exist in those areas a whole lot tougher. That approach, wildfire and climate policy experts …

Humans to Blame for More Than 80% of U.S. Wildfires

Humans have been the culprits behind hundreds of thousands of wildfires in recent decades, and they will probably make things a whole lot worse in coming years. Research from the University of Colorado Boulder finds that humans have dramatically increased …