Sponsor
John Peter Ricketts
Senator · R-NE
Senator · R-NE
Official title: Direct the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to establish prepositioning protocols for aerial wildfire suppression for early-season fine fuel wildland fires, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 6, 2026 by John Peter Ricketts · Last progress August 6, 2026
The bill trades a faster, coordinated early‑season aerial firefighting capability in five Rocky Mountain states—using existing wildland fire funds—for reduced funding and capacity for other prevention/land‑management programs and exclusion of other high‑risk areas.
Residents of Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, and Wyoming would get faster aerial firefighting response for early‑season fine‑fuel fires through seasonal prepositioned aircraft and crews, increasing chances of rapid initial attack and reducing fire growth.
State and local fire managers would have more coordinated operations because the pilot must align with each State’s Master Cooperative Wildland Fire Management and Stafford Act Response Agreement, improving interagency planning and response clarity.
Homeowners and utilities in the five-state area could see reduced property and infrastructure damage due to earlier suppression enabled by optimized resource placement via consultation with the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.
Using existing wildland fire management funds for the pilot may reduce funding available for other fire prevention or mitigation programs, potentially delaying projects that reduce future fire risk.
Reallocating agency budgets to support the pilot could constrain frontline staffing or maintenance for other Forest Service or Department of the Interior programs, degrading broader land management and emergency response capacity.
The pilot targets only five States, so other high‑risk communities would not receive these prepositioning benefits and could face comparatively slower aerial response.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a pilot to seasonally preposition aerial wildfire suppression resources in five states using existing wildland fire funds.
Establishes a pilot program directing the Forest Service and the Interior Department’s Wildland Fire Service to preposition aerial wildfire suppression resources seasonally for early‑season fine‑fuel fires in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The pilot must be coordinated with each state's existing Master Cooperative Wildland Fire Management and Stafford Act Response Agreement and the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center, and must use funds already available for wildland fire management (no new appropriations).