Description

The Reserve Fund, also known as the wildfire adjustment or wildfire funding fix, is jointly managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Department of the Interior (DOI). It may only be used by USFS or DOI for emergency suppression activities after suppression funding under the agencies’ respective Wildland Fire Management (WFM) accounts are exhausted. Its use is authorized as long as a baseline level of funding for wildfire suppression operations is met in the underlying appropriations bill. This base level is set at the average cost over ten years for wildfire suppression operations requested in the President’s 2015 Budget, amounting to $1.011 billion for USFS and $384 million for DOI. The Reserve Fund was first available in FY2020, capped at $2.25 billion, with the annual maximum funding level increasing by $100 million every fiscal year until FY2027. Unobligated balances in the Reserve Fund roll over to the next year.