Addressing a surprising barrier to controlled burning in the West
Policy solutions overcome liability limitations to beneficial fire
By Leah Palmer, Writing Manager for The Nature Conservancy
For Kai Sauerbrey, Fire Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon, a day spent advocating for policy is far from routine. “Put me in front of 100 firefighters, and I am rooted in my element. Put me in front of a dozen representatives, and I have to spend a lot of time pumping myself up with positive self-talk.”
As Sauerbrey prepared to deliver testimony in January 2023, before the Oregon House Committee on Climate, Energy, and Environment, they skipped breakfast and set aside their usual yellow flame-resistant clothes and dusty black cap. Instead, they pulled on a professional top and wove their hair into a neat braid. Despite nerves, Sauerbrey did the unexpected and exposed the surprising barrier to beating wildfires in the West: fire practitioners struggle to obtain insurance coverage for the marginal risks associated with controlled burning.
There are two primary methods for applying intentional beneficial fire to improve forest health: controlled burning and cultural fire. Controlled burning, also known as prescribed fire, is a proven preventative measure for severe wildfires, reducing their threat by up to 72% when used in combination with forest thinning. Fire practitioners intentionally apply fire to clear dried vegetation on forest floors waiting to ignite. In the West, this practice is modeled after an Indigenous-led practice called cultural burning. Like controlled fire, cultural burning involves applying low-intensity fire to improve a landscape, but it’s done for distinct purposes. Indigenous fire practitioners may implement cultural burning for many reasons—to maintain forest health, support first foods and medicines, create prime conditions for materials used in traditional art and to support critical species. This stewardship practice, and all its benefits, are transferred from generation to generation. But a history of fire suppression policies have squelched fire in forests across the West, including controlled and cultural fire.
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Controlled and cultural burning initiate a cycle of restoration that benefits biodiversity, makes wildfires safer for firefighters to manage and reduces risk for nearby communities. But, without insurance coverage, many fire practitioners and landowners have been cautious about applying beneficial fire. They're often less worried about a burn losing control or causing damage, as rigorous training and data prove the safety. However, most regulatory bodies require insurance to financially mitigate the perceived risks, and insurers simply aren’t up to speed.
Sauerbrey notes burn operators face challenges obtaining insurance, just one reason behind “a backlog of prescribed burning within our dry forests that is necessary to mitigate hazardous fuel levels and reduce the risk of future extreme wildfire.”
To tackle this insurance issue, fire experts have spent the last three years generating a swell of political advocacy to establish state-funded liability coverage for beneficial fire. Sauerbrey’s testimony supported a proposed bill that established a liability claims fund for fire practitioners in Oregon to advance the use of controlled burns.
How do liability claims funds work?
Private insurers have been dropping coverage or raising premiums for beneficial fire, not only limiting fire practitioners and private landowners, but also exacerbating wildfire risks for communities. This situation reveals a gap between ecological science and institutional systems. Without insurance, fire practitioners and landowners are less likely to conduct crucial controlled burns, despite benefits to land and communities.
Liability claims funds are a simple solution with a big impact. They are being piloted across the West, as fire practitioners and policy advocates recognize the need and are moving proposed legislation forward.
With state-funded liability coverage in place, any loss or damage to a neighbor from an escaped burn, will be compensated by the funds. The pilot claims funds support certified fire practitioners if they incur financial responsibility in the rare event, less than one percent, of a controlled burn escaping and causing damage. They also collect data about the frequency of escaped controlled burns. So far, data supports expert experience: beneficial fire rarely goes bad. Additionally, liability claims funds provide a solution to barriers of entry for fire practitioners, including cultural burn practitioners and local community groups across a checkerboard of ownership in western landscapes.
In their testimony, Sauerbrey pointed the committee to an example from field experience. “In the summer of 2021, the Bootleg Fire burned throughout south-central Oregon, becoming the third-largest fire in Oregon’s history. The Bootleg Fire burned into areas on TNC’s Sycan Marsh Preserve, where I had previously acted as a burn boss. As a firefighter on the ground during the Bootleg Fire, I had the unique opportunity to witness how areas where prescribed fire had been applied, either alone or in combination with thinning, burned with significantly lower severity than untreated areas,” they said.
A recent study examines the impact of forest treatments on burn severity, using sample points across the Bootleg Fire. The study affirms Sauerbrey’s testimony and found that controlled burning is significantly more effective in reducing wildfire severity than other forest treatments—and certainly more effective than no treatment at all.
As a firefighter on the ground during the Bootleg Fire, I had the unique opportunity to witness how areas where prescribed fire had been applied, either alone or in combination with thinning, burned with significant lower severity than untreated areas.
Following Sauerbrey’s testimony, Gov. Tina Kotek signed SB 80 to establish an Oregon controlled fire liability claims fund, August 2023. The bill initiated a pilot program that offers up to $1 million in liability coverage per controlled burn, provided the burn meets key requirements. Burn practitioners must ensure a controlled burn is led by a certified fire professional or cultural burn practitioner and follow proper permits and laws.
In 2025, Sauerbrey led the first TNC controlled burn under the newly established claims fund in central Oregon in partnership with Deschutes Land Trust and the USDA Forest Service. “It’s pretty neat to know that I helped testify for a program that is now protecting me and others while we work,” says Sauerbrey.
Forging a path for legislative wins
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Oregon’s new liability fund may revolutionize forest management in high-risk areas across the state, but the effort to answer the liability question with a policy fix actually got its start in California. TNC and the Forest Stewards Guild began charting a way in 2021 when they assembled a coalition of fire and insurance experts to identify solutions, led by Lenya Quinn-Davidson, fire network director at University of California School of Agriculture and Natural Resources and one of the key advisors on the claims fund. Advocacy from that coalition and other partners resulted in the California state legislature setting aside $20 million for the development of a claims fund in 2021. The following year, Senator Bill Dodd authored Senate Bill 926, which guided operations of the fund through an ad-hoc advisory committee.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s Prescribed Fire Claims Liability Fund pilot program into law in September 2022 and AB 1699: Good Fire Act was introduced this year to indefinitely extend the program.
Since the fund was established in California, experts have collected data on burn success. “We are almost three years into the claims fund, with hundreds of projects enrolled and thousands of acres of projects implemented. We have had zero escapes and zero claims against the fund, again demonstrating that the claims fund approach is in large part addressing perceived risk more than actual risk,” says Quinn-Davidson.
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In Washington, the Intertribal Timber Council worked with TNC government relations teams to advocate for a financial safety net for private fire practitioners and Indigenous Nations conducting cultural burns on non-reservation lands or traditional gathering areas. Cody Desautel, board president of the Intertribal Timber Council, executive director of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville and a TNC Washington trustee says, “We feel an obligation to do work that leads to healthy harvestable populations of these plants and animals that give themselves up to keep us healthy.”
With the claims fund pilot program in place, Tribal Nations in Washington can carry out small, low-risk burns on private lands with cultural significance. Restoring cultural burning can reduce wildfire risk while improving habitat for plants and first foods, like camas and bitterroot. Cody emphasizes, “it will be something that would not have been done otherwise.”
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In Colorado, policy advocates for controlled burning faced uphill battles, as sobering financial realities set in during the 2025 legislative session. Despite bipartisan enthusiasm for controlled burning’s effectiveness, Aaron Citron, policy director at TNC in Colorado noted, “Everything is getting cut.” Colorado sliced funding for essential services, like public schools and healthcare, leaving Citron with cautious optimism. He described an “eyes wide open” approach, from the beginning, hoping testimonies in favor of the fund would benefit a larger, long-term strategy.
The stakes are high for communities in Colorado. Controlled fire in this headwater state can protect critical resources, such as the Rio Grande and Colorado River, the latter of which provides drinking water for over 40 million people in the West. Parker Titus, fire program manager for TNC Colorado, explains these rivers are “the lifeblood for drinking water and agricultural water for millions downstream.” Titus says accelerating controlled fire in Colorado could benefit communities beyond the state borders.
“In 10 years, I hope we see a healthier relationship with fire,” Titus says, emphasizing the need for cultural and policy shifts that support community-led fire management.
Colorado passed Senate Bill 7 in May 2025, helping fire practitioners chart a way forward for beneficial fire in the headwater state.
What’s ahead?
New claims funds pilot programs have successfully attracted insurers to cover controlled burning liabilities. This is largely due to defined regulations and a growing body of data in favor of this low-risk forest management practice. In California, Quinn-Davidson says, “we now have at least two insurers providing prescribed fire policies that are built on top of the claims fund. These insurers offer policies that cover up to $20 million after the two million provided by the state.”
Fire experts and policy advocates hope these initial efforts encourage local communities and private landowners to drive policy changes in their states. As TNC and partner coalitions work together to encourage equitable coverage for controlled burning and cultural fire, they are opening doors for healthier lands across the West.
Controlled burning and cultural fire
Read our new story, Fire on the Ground, for a behind the scenes look at the science, planning, and expertise behind controlled burns and cultural fire in dry forest ecosystems.
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