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Stop Wildfire Smoke From Choking Americans To Death

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Sponsor: The Rainforest Site

Every summer, millions of Americans breathe air thick with wildfire smoke — and it doesn't have to be this way.

Massive dark smoke clouds from a wildfire billow above a suburban neighborhood of tiled-roof homes and green trees.

Every summer, millions of Americans breathe air thick with wildfire smoke. The health consequences are serious: respiratory illness, cardiovascular stress, and elevated mortality risk. Children, the elderly, and families living near forested land bear the sharpest burden. And the problem is getting worse. Wildfire seasons are longer and more destructive than they were a generation ago — not because fire is new, but because the conditions that turn ordinary ignitions into megafires have been building for decades.

The Root Cause: Too Much Fuel, Too Little Management

Decades of aggressive fire suppression have left forests across the American West and Southeast packed with dry, accumulated vegetation. When a spark hits that fuel load, the result is not a manageable burn — it is a high-intensity megafire that sends fine particulate matter across entire regions for weeks at a time.5 The U.S. Department of Agriculture has identified this fuel buildup as a central driver of fire severity and has pointed to proactive fuel treatments as essential to reducing it before fires ignite.5

Prescribed Fire Is Not the Same as Wildfire Smoke

A critical distinction gets lost in public debate: wildfire smoke and prescribed fire smoke are not equivalent hazards. Research published through Cornell University's arXiv found that wildfires burn at far greater intensity, release much higher concentrations of fine particulate matter, and expose communities for far longer periods than planned, lower-intensity prescribed burns.3 The American Lung Association has reviewed the evidence and found that properly executed prescribed fire can reduce the risk and severity of future wildfires — meaning less total smoke exposure over time, not more.6 The question is not whether communities face some smoke. It is whether that smoke comes from a brief, managed burn or a months-long catastrophe.

Congress Has a Path Forward — But Needs to Act

The Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of 2026 (WEPA) is a bipartisan bill that would streamline the approval process for prescribed burns while establishing community protections and air quality monitoring requirements. The Federation of American Scientists supports the bill, noting that expanding access to evidence-based fuel treatments is one of the most direct routes to reducing harmful emissions from unplanned wildfires.1 The legislation advanced through the Senate with support from members of both parties.2 Researchers published in Environmental Science & Technology have also called for stronger air quality monitoring near burn sites and better community-level exposure tracking — safeguards that belong in any expansion of fuel treatment programs.4

Communities Deserve Protection and a Voice

Prescribed burning done right means transparency with nearby residents, rigorous monitoring, and protection of sensitive wildlife habitat. It means accountability at every step. The science is clear on what works. What's needed now is political will to match it.

Sign the petition today to urge Congress and the U.S. Forest Service to expand responsible, evidence-based fuel treatments — and to ensure that every community affected has real protections, real monitoring, and a real seat at the table.

More on this issue:

  1. Jessica Blackband, Federation of American Scientists (27 July 2026), "Position on the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of 2026 (WEPA)."
  2. McLean Albritton, Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) (17 September 2026), "Bipartisan Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act (WEPA) Advances in Senate."
  3. Ting-Hsuan Chang, Minghao Qiu, Yaguang Wei, Xiao Wu, arXiv (Cornell University) (11 September 2026), "Evaluating Differential Air Quality Impacts of Prescribed Fire and Wildfire in the United States."
  4. Sherri W. Hunt, Jason D. Sacks, Gayle S.W. Hagler, Bryan Hubbell, Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications) (9 June 2026), "Burning Questions: Research Data, Tools, and Insights Needed to Reduce Environmental Exposures and Public Health Risks from Wildland Fires in the United States."
  5. Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture (29 April 2026), "Secretary of Agriculture Issues 2026 Wildfire Readiness Memorandum Ahead of Active Fire Season."
  6. Staff, American Lung Association (8 June 2022), "Can Prescribed Fires Mitigate Health Harm? A Review of Air Quality and Public Health Implications of Wildfire and Prescribed Fire."

The Petition

To the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, and the Chief of the United States Forest Service:

Every summer, millions of Americans — children, elderly neighbors, families living near forested land — breathe air that puts their health at risk. Wildfire smoke is not an inconvenience. It drives respiratory illness, strains the cardiovascular system, and raises mortality risk, hitting hardest in the communities least equipped to absorb that burden. These are our people. They deserve better than a future defined by smoke seasons that grow longer and more severe each year.

The science is clear on what is driving this crisis. Decades of aggressive fire suppression have left forests across the American West and Southeast packed with dry, accumulated fuel. When ignition comes — and it always does — that buildup transforms ordinary fires into megafires that burn intensely, emit vast quantities of fine particulate matter, and expose entire regions to harmful air for weeks or months at a time. The problem is not fire itself. It is unplanned, uncontrolled fire.

Research distinguishes sharply between wildfire smoke and prescribed fire smoke. Carefully managed, lower-intensity burns produce less particulate matter, expose communities for far shorter periods, and — when done well — reduce the likelihood and severity of the catastrophic wildfires they replace. The American Lung Association has affirmed that properly executed prescribed fire can lower overall smoke exposure over time. Expanding this work is an act of public health, not a concession to risk.

We urge you to support and advance the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of 2026, which would streamline the approval process for prescribed burns while establishing community protections and air quality monitoring requirements. We also urge the Forest Service to prioritize scaling evidence-based fuel treatments — prescribed burning, mechanical thinning, and targeted clearing — with robust safeguards for nearby residents, wildlife habitat, and air quality. Affected communities must have meaningful input in how and when burns are conducted, and monitoring must be rigorous and transparent.

Compassion means acting before the next catastrophic season makes the cost of inaction impossible to ignore. It means choosing the path that protects the most people from the most harm.

These actions will ensure a healthier, safer, and more resilient future for all Americans.

Sincerely,

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