Proven Forest Management Act of 2025

Key Points

• Directs the Agriculture Department (and Interior on certain public lands) to coordinate with “impacted parties” when doing forest projects, like local governments, Tribal leaders, and fire departments.
• Says forest work should aim for multiple benefits, like cutting wildfire fuel, protecting wildlife variety, improving water and wetlands, and helping forests handle changing weather—unless the agency says the added cost is too high.
• Requires setting clear goals for how disturbed ground should look after a project and monitoring to check whether those goals are met.
• Lets some fuel-reduction projects skip a full environmental review if they meet limits (up to 10,000 acres total and 3,000 acres of mechanical thinning) and are planned with local coordination and consistent with the local forest plan.
• Allows the agencies to use contracts and cooperative agreements with qualified partners for work like fuel reduction, erosion control, replanting trees, and restoring areas near streams on and near federal lands.