1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I write as your constituent to urge your support for the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act. This bipartisan legislation offers North Carolina a responsible path forward in addressing wildfire threats while safeguarding our irreplaceable ecosystems. Unlike competing proposals that rely on accelerated logging and weakened environmental protections, this Act prioritizes proven, science-based strategies that protect both people and forests. The Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act directs $1 billion annually toward home hardening, defensible space creation, early detection systems, and evacuation planning—interventions with demonstrated effectiveness. Research shows that home-level preparedness, not landscape-scale logging, determines whether communities survive wildfires. By funding community-scale defense infrastructure and protecting critical facilities, this Act addresses the actual mechanisms that save lives. Additionally, it supports biochar research and improved firefighting technologies that represent genuine innovation in wildfire response. This legislation avoids the problematic environmental streamlining found in alternative proposals like the "Fix Our Forests" Act. Rather than reducing public comment periods from six years to 150 days or expanding categorical exclusions to 10,000-acre projects, the Community Protection Act maintains rigorous environmental review standards while improving interagency coordination. This ensures decisions reflect scientific evidence and community input, not expedited timber operations. North Carolina's forests—from our Blue Ridge Mountains to our coastal plains—are among our greatest natural assets and deserve protection grounded in ecology, not regulatory shortcuts. The Community Protection Act has earned endorsements from leading conservation organizations including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, and The Wilderness Society. These groups recognize it as a legitimate alternative to legislation that prioritizes commercial logging under the guise of fire mitigation. North Carolina's future depends on protecting our communities and our forests. The Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act achieves both without sacrificing ecosystem integrity or environmental accountability. I urge you to support the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act and reject the Fix Our Forests Act.