OPINION: Sen. Luján should support the Fix Our Forests Act

Here in New Mexico, balloons instead of smoke are filling our sky as our fire season comes to an end. This year was not as devastating as 2022, when more than 900,000 acres were scorched across the state. However, New Mexico still saw nearly 200,000 acres burned. Not only that, but because of the burn scars left from previous wildfires, communities like Ruidoso are experiencing deadly flooding years after the last embers were put out.

Fortunately for our state, our representatives have not stood idly by while New Mexico goes up in flames. Sen. Ben Ray Luján has been a leader in confronting the wildfire crisis facing New Mexico and the rest of our country. He has introduced bipartisan legislation to do everything from restoring forest health after wildfires, to investing in cutting-edge technology to prepare for and respond to future fires.

Now, Luján has the opportunity to lead once more by supporting S.1462, the Fix Our Forests Act. The Fix Our Forests Act tackles two key challenges at its core — permitting reform and technology adoption for improved decision-making that are essential to scaling up effective wildfire mitigation. The bill establishes a new community wildfire risk reduction program to help New Mexican communities become more fire-resistant, creates a wildfire intelligence center to embed cutting-edge science and technology into fire prediction and response, and makes it easier to reduce buildups of dead wood and brush that significantly increase wildfire risk.

Creation of a Wildfire Intelligence Center, in particular, would provide tools to help small fire departments and rural communities across New Mexico prepare for and predict fire and smoke behavior. In an era of sharp political divisions, particularly around environmental policy, the Fix Our Forests Act stands out as a notable instance of largely bipartisan agreement.

First introduced during the Biden administration, it was reintroduced earlier this year and swiftly passed in the U.S. House with the support of every Republican and 64 Democrats. Opponents have argued that the bill would stifle public input, roll back environmental protections and remove science from land management. These arguments are simply false. The bill balances the importance of community engagement and environmental review with the need to dramatically increase the pace and scale at which we implement wildfire resilience projects.

The urgency of this crisis requires our leaders to act quickly and decisively to protect our public lands. Scientific evidence shows that active forest management, the same kind as envisioned under the Fix Our Forests Act, would not only build wildfire resilience but also directly mitigate future droughts, leading to less fire-prone conditions. The legislation would also substantially strengthen how we incorporate science into land and fire management by providing real-time analytical services, comprehensively modeling wildfire, consolidating air quality data and establishing information systems accessible to federal, state, local and tribal governments.

The Fix Our Forests Act isn’t a silver bullet, but it is a powerful step forward, and in this urgent moment, progress is exactly what we need. It represents months of negotiations and input from stakeholders across the country and ideological spectrum.

Currently, the bill is awaiting a markup in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry, a committee on which Luján serves and holds a key vote on. Luján has fought for decades for New Mexico, and as a New Mexican I know that if passed this bill would be an important step toward ensuring that fire is less of a threat to New Mexicans and, indeed, all Americans.

James Campbell is the director of federal affairs and strategic counsel at Megafire Action.