Forest fire mitigation

The United States government has announced it will spend about $930m to fund forest-thinning operations in western states struggling to cope with explosive wildfire seasons.

[...]

Decades of fire suppression efforts have left many forests overgrown and densely packed with easily combustible plant matter.

  alJazeera

Looks like they'll take Trump's advice and rake the forest floors.

[F]actors include rising temperatures and drought that have dried out trees and foliage, partly due to climate change. Insect outbreaks have also killed millions of trees, leaving forest floors packed with dry kindling that helps fuel massive conflagrations.

[...]

The funds will help finance projects to clear trees and excessive underbrush in fire-prone areas of 10 western states, where blazes have consumed nearly 300,000 square kilometres (115,000 sq miles) and burned about 80,000 structures over the last decade.

[...]

In California, the five largest fires in state history have all taken place since 2018, despite an unusually subdued season in 2022. The largest, the August Complex fire in August 2020, scorched a previously unheard-of 404,700 hectares before it was finally contained.

Vilsack has warned that “draconian” budget cuts floated by some Republican legislators would hobble the government’s ability to meet the challenge. A Republican majority took control of the US House of Representatives this January.

“There’s one big ‘if’,” Vilsack said. “We need to have a good partner in Congress.”

So...DOA.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.