# The ACRES Act: Better Tracking of Wildfire Prevention Work

The federal government spends billions of dollars every year trying to prevent wildfires by clearing dead trees, thinning forests, and conducting controlled burns on public lands. The problem is that nobody really knows if this money is being spent effectively or how much work is actually getting done. The ACRES Act aims to fix this by requiring the Agriculture and Interior departments to start keeping accurate, consistent records of their wildfire prevention activities and reporting those results to Congress and the public.

Right now, the two departments that manage most federal lands—the Forest Service (under Agriculture) and the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service (under Interior)—track their wildfire prevention work differently. They might count the same acre multiple times if they do several treatments on it, or they might not clearly distinguish between work done in neighborhoods near homes versus remote areas. This makes it impossible to know if prevention efforts are actually working or where money is being wasted. The ACRES Act requires both departments to count each acre only once per year, clearly identify which work happens near homes and which doesn't, measure whether the work actually reduces wildfire risk, and report the cost per acre. They also have to make all this information public on their websites so taxpayers can see what's happening.

The bill gives the departments 90 days to set up standardized procedures for tracking this data accurately, and they must report to Congress about how they're doing it. Within two years, an independent government auditor will review whether the new system is working and identify any problems. Since the bill doesn't provide any new funding, the departments will have to do this tracking with their existing budgets. For most people, this means more transparency about whether wildfire prevention money is being spent wisely, though it won't directly change any current programs or policies.

ACRES Act

Tiffany, Thomas P.

Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions Act or the ACRES ActThis bill establishes requirements regarding&nbsp;reports&nbsp;about hazardous fuels reduction activities and&nbsp;standardized procedures for tracking data for hazardous fuels reduction. Hazardous fuels reduction activities means any vegetation management activities that reduce the risk of wildfire but excludes the award of contracts to conduct hazardous fuels reduction activities.First, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior must include in the materials submitted in support of the President's budget each fiscal year a report on the number of acres of federal land on which such activities were carried out during the preceding year.Next, USDA and Interior must implement standardized procedures for tracking data related to such activities. The standardized procedures must include<ul><li>regular, standardized data reviews of the accuracy and timely input of data used to track hazardous fuels reduction activities;</li><li>verification methods that validate whether such data accurately correlates to such activities;</li><li>an analysis of the short- and long-term effectiveness of such activities on reducing the risk of wildfire; and</li><li>for hazardous fuels reduction activities that occur partially within the wildland-urban interface, methods to distinguish which acres are located within and which located outside the wildland-urban interface.</li></ul>Finally, the Government Accountability Office must (1) conduct a study on this bill's implementation, and (2) submit a report to Congress with the results of the study.