Our forests are burning. And Washington can’t keep standing by, stuck in process and politics, while homes go up in smoke. Over the past decade, we’ve watched catastrophic wildfires sweep across the West – destroying communities, public lands and wildlife habitats.
I represent Colorado’s 3rd District, home to some of the most fire-prone land in the country and four national parks. I’m proud to co-sponsor the “Fix Our Forests Act,” a call to action that gives us a real shot at doing what we should have done long ago: manage our forests before they’re gone.
The root of the problem isn’t a mystery. Colorado is a dry state, and that’s not changing anytime soon. But drought alone doesn’t start megafires. It’s the decades of overgrown underbrush, deadfall and beetle-eaten trees – all waiting to ignite. This dangerous fuel load is a direct result of letting basic forest management fall by the wayside. The conditions are clear, and so are the consequences. Every year we wait, the next fire season grows more expensive and more devastating.
That’s exactly what the “Fix Our Forests Act” addresses. The bill outlines a series of smart, straightforward reforms. For example, it allows the forest service to designate high-risk “firesheds” as priority areas for treatment. That single change opens the door for faster implementation of controlled burns, mechanical thinning and other proven mitigation strategies. These are tools that professionals are ready to use, but often can’t because they’re tangled in environmental review processes that were never meant to block urgent wildfire prevention.
The bill also aims to strengthen regional and local partnerships. States, counties, tribes and conservation districts are given more flexibility to coordinate directly with federal agencies and get boots on the ground faster. Many of these communities already have forest health plans in place but require federal support to scale those efforts. By creating clearer pathways for shared stewardship and resource sharing, management decisions are brought closer to the people who know the land best.
Protecting our forests starts with managing them. The economic toll of wildfires on Colorado’s rural communities is hard to overstate. When a major fire strikes, the damage doesn’t end with charred trees – it ripples across local economies. In 2018, the 416 Fire cost an estimated $40 million in damages – without destroying a single building. It burned 55,000 acres of the San Juan National Forest north of Durango and devastated local businesses through lost tourism.
The cost of fighting wildfires continues to rise year after year. By investing in forest prevention up front, long-term costs can be significantly reduced, and the livelihoods of rural communities that depend on healthy forests are protected. If we want to preserve Colorado’s mountain landscapes, we need to implement forest policy that enables action.
To me, this is far beyond politics. It’s about the family that’s been evacuated for the third year in a row. It’s about the firefighter who risks his life every season because the work that could’ve made his job safer never got done. These are livelihoods and communities that have suffered irreparable damage – damage that could have been prevented if action had been taken.
And we know that active management works. In areas where forests have been responsibly treated, fires burn slower and with less intensity. Working together can even prevent those fires entirely. Homes and watersheds are better protected. Lives are saved. To be very clear – we need to fix our forests, before they burn again.
Rep. Jeff Hurd represents the 3rd District of Colorado in the U.S. House of Representatives. Reach him or a staff member at hurd.house.gov/contact.
