As FAS prepares to formally launch the Day One 2025 initiative and reflect on the origins of Day One, it is essential that we also recognize the important policy innovations that have surfaced in our community since the initial series of notes . It is also useful to reflect on how FAS, as an organization, has developed the institutional infrastructure to support more policy entrepreneurs and make the most of policy windows when they open widest. is.
All of these factors stand out as much as the work that FAS staff, our partner organizations, and up-and-coming policy entrepreneurs have done and continue to do to change the way the United States responds to the wildfire crisis. There may not be a single good example.
The origins of this effort date back to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) and its creation of the Federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. The act charged the commission with recommending improvements to how the federal government manages wildland fires.
The commission was co-chaired by the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and consisted of 50 members representing federal agencies, state and local governments, tribal governments, and the private sector. As part of its work towards its final report to Parliament, the Commission sought public input and consulted with subject matter experts on the stakeholder status and policy gaps. I felt that it had opened up.
Through the Wildland Fire Policy Accelerator, FAS supported 20 experts who developed 23 new policy recommendations as input to the commission’s process. FAS partners with COMPASS, Conservation and developed.
“We really wanted different perspectives, especially voices that have traditionally been left out of the discussion,” says Erica Goldman, director of science policy and entrepreneurship at FAS. “Our accelerator population ended up including engineers and innovators. Practitioners who burn culture. Youth engaged in wildland firefighting. Engineers and innovators. Public health professionals. And Research scientists too.”
Accelerator participant Alistair Hayden, assistant professor of practice at Cornell University’s School of Public and Ecological Health, has authored four different policy recommendations on smoke mitigation and beneficial fire uses.
He says the FAS accelerator helped him in three big ways. “The designated program gave me free time to spend on notes. The good program structure expedited the process, and the experts I connected with along the way (eventually, co-authoring). “We received incredible feedback from experts (including experts who have become experts) to improve our ideas,” he says.
Another participant, Wonder Lab co-founder Shefali Rakina, brings 18 years of experience in developing disaster mitigation policies and programs, but most of her expertise comes from outside the United States. did.
“The accelerator gave me a decent understanding of America’s unique policy landscape, entry points, and inner workings,” she says. “FAS also played a key role in my submission of recommendations directly to the Federal Commission.Although not explicitly acknowledged in the Commission’s final report, both of my recommendations were included in the text. I think it was well presented and worth the effort.”
FAS’s work in the wildfire policy field was not limited to helping memo writers refine their ideas into actionable policies. Officials found that funding sources for wildfire mitigation efforts across the country are vast and poorly understood even by those most concerned about the crisis. FAS partnered with Resources for the Future to create the Federal Wildfire Funding Wheel, a data visualization tool that analyzes the current state of federal funding. FAS also continued to write about the funding landscape and challenges posed by federal agencies’ wildland fire budget structures in the months leading up to the committee’s final report to Congress. The organization also hosts several meetings, providing stakeholders in the science, technology, and policy communities the opportunity to exchange positive ideas toward the common goal of improving the federal government’s approach to wildland fire management. did.
All of these examples illustrate how, over the past few years, FAS has not only identified and supported policy entrepreneurs, but also leveraged internal and external expertise to lay the foundations for more informed policy debates. It shows that we’ve been building a Day One model.
When the final report from the commission was submitted in the fall of 2023, there was evidence that the FAS approach had an impact.
The Commission noted that although its formal recommendations were not based on specific public input or comments, many of the ideas and policy solutions presented by the FAS Wildland Fire Policy Accelerator Collective were included in the Commission’s final product. was reflected in. Examples of accelerator ideas reflected in the committee’s report include:
- Creating next-generation fire and vegetation models for decision support in a warm future. The inability of existing models to predict recent fire behavior is recognized in the front matter of the commission’s report, and the need for additional capacity to model climate and fuels is reflected in Recommendation 105.
- Improve smoke tracking and warning to protect public health and are broadly reflected in the Commission’s recommendations 44
- Creation of a Federal Compensation Fund to cover accidental damages from culture fires and prescribed fires (as reflected in Commission Recommendation 10), and legal recognition of culture fires (as reflected in Commission Recommendation 16)
- Investing in workforce development that strengthens Indigenous experiences and knowledge and supports marginalized communities. It is broadly reflected in a number of committee recommendations in Chapters 3 and 5.
- Developing a framework for measuring and evaluating the socio-ecological impacts of wildfires. This is broadly consistent with Recommendation 147 regarding the need to establish performance indicators that go beyond treated area and highlight impacts on ecosystems and local communities.
- Strengthen collaborative production and scientific translation capabilities at the USGS, DOI, and USFS to improve outcomes, as broadly reflected in the Committee’s Recommendation 113.
Other FAS publications also provide information on the committee’s activities, as evidenced by the citation of FAS activities related to federal appropriations in the final report. They cited the Wildfire Funding Wheel data visualization tool that analyzes the current federal funding landscape. Additionally, the committee cited an FAS blog post (co-authored by Sonia Wang prior to her tenure at OMB) that summarizes the federal government’s wildland fire budget structure.
“With our multifaceted approach, we have helped leaders take advantage of critical policy windows to build wildfire resilience across the country,” says FAS’s Goldman. “FAS supports the effective use of science, data, technology and expertise through public policy. And now that the commission’s report is out, the work continues, and we are committed to partnering. We aim to support its implementation through , issue education, and legislative lobbying.”
