In Utah—and the rest of the western United States—footing the bill for wildfire prevention, suppression, and mitigation is a persistently hot topic. The challenge of addressing wildfire on state, private, and federal lands, layered with the complexities of increasingly arid conditions, multiplied by population growth, and seasoned with competing budgetary priorities results in a natural resource issue which is anything but clear cut.
In the 2025 General Session, the Legislature passed H.B. 307, “Wildfire Funding Amendments” which combined three separate funds into a single pot focused not only on fighting wildfires but also on pre-fire and post-fire activities. The bill moved the balances from the Wildland-Urban Interface Prevention Preparedness and Mitigation Fund, the Wildland Fire Preparedness Grants Fund, and from the Wildland Fire Suppression Fund into the newly created (and most succinctly titled) Utah Wildfire Fund. The graphic below details the various sources to the fund and permissible uses.
As an expendable special revenue fund, this account does not require an appropriation by the Legislature to be used by the division for purposes authorized in statute. A notable change included in H.B. 307 was a minimum annual expenditure from the Utah Wildfire Fund of $10.0 million for wildfire prevention, preparedness, and mitigation efforts.
Prior to 2021, budgeting for wildfire suppression costs was reactionary–essentially always playing catch-up with last season’s expenses. However, a significant shift occurred during the 2021, 2022, and 2023 General Sessions, when the Legislature allocated a total of $155.2 million to fire suppression (including $10.0 million ongoing). This substantial investment transformed the former Wildland Fire Suppression Fund into a proactive, working rainy day fund. In fact, the interest earned by the fund in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 almost entirely covered the state’s share of wildfire costs for the 2024 fire season.
Federal Funding for Wildfire
Wildfire obviously doesn’t pay attention to property boundaries; and with nearly two-thirds of the state being owned by the Federal Government, collaboration is a requirement. At the end of each fire season, the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands (FFSL) settles with federal partners, including the United States Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and others. This process of reconciliation for expenses for various fires based on land ownership operates smoothly for the state. Depending on the fire year and the agency, the state may owe funds or may be the collector.
The Federal government also provides multiple streams of grant funding which carry varied levels of reliability. From the Department of Homeland Security, the state may apply for Fire Management Assistance Grants (FMAG) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for fires that pose the risk of a major disaster. Grant approval is provided early on, with payouts provided post-fire. The state is currently still waiting for FMAG payments from previous fire seasons.
The USFS provides an annual grant through the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978. This program provides a consolidated grant for several programs, which has ensured stable base funding of roughly $3.0 million for FFSL to pay for staff salaries as well as pass-through funding to rural fire departments. While this grant award is typically paid to Utah by the first of May, the state has not received payment this year. On June 12th, the President issued an executive order directing the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to create a separate, new agency specifically to address wildfires. At present, it’s unclear when or if the Cooperative Forestry Assistance grant will resume.
While the federal side of the equation provides uncertainty, the state budget for preventing, preparing, fighting, and cleaning up wildfires has never burned brighter.