Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act of 2025

The bill would amend the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004 to add Utah to the list of states required to host a Southwest Ecological Restoration Institute. These institutes promote adaptive ecosystem management — an approach that uses monitoring and research to adjust land-management practices over time — to reduce wildfire risk and restore the health of forest and woodland ecosystems. The bill makes two changes to the existing law: adding Utah to the mandate listing covered states, and updating a conforming reference to include Utah alongside Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.

The bill does not itself appropriate funding, set a timeline for establishment, or define the structure of the new Utah institute — those details would be governed by the existing Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act framework that already applies to the other three institutes.

University or research institution partners in Utah that would host or operate the new institute, federal land managers in Utah who would use the institute's research and management guidance, and communities in Utah's wildland-urban interface that could benefit from reduced wildfire risk through improved forest management practices.

Utah currently lacks a federally mandated research institute under this program, even though the state shares fire-prone forest and woodland ecosystems with neighboring states that already have institutes. If enacted, Utah would gain access to the same federally supported adaptive ecosystem management research infrastructure that Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado rely on to guide wildfire prevention efforts.

The bill's operative change is narrow — it adds Utah to the existing statutory list of covered states. The Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act's existing framework would then govern how the Utah institute is designated, how it partners with universities or other entities, and how it coordinates with federal agencies. No new rulemaking or reporting requirements are created by the bill itself; the established program structure for existing institutes would extend to Utah.