Council member seeks strategic wildfire plan for city parks, annual reporting by DPR

Council Member Shekhar Krishnan, chair of the New York City Council Parks Committee, introduced legislation (Intro 11-85a) directing the Department of Parks and Recreation to develop a strategic plan to mitigate wildfires in city parks by March 1, 2026 and to submit annual reports on wildfires occurring on parks under its jurisdiction.

“Last November, we saw in New York 250 wildfires in 2 weeks from Brooklyn to Queens to The Bronx,” Krishnan said, describing the pattern as evidence of a worsening climate-driven threat. He told colleagues the bill is intended to push the parks department and other city agencies to coordinate prevention, preparedness and public education on wildfire risk.

Krishnan said the city has roughly 30,000 acres of parkland and that many of those acres face heightened wildfire risk. The proposed plan would require interagency coordination, response protocols and public outreach to reduce ignition risk and speed responses when fires occur.

Krishnan framed the measure as both a preventative and restorative step: the plan would aim to avoid fires where possible, shorten response times and reduce long-term damage to urban forests and neighborhood green spaces. He said the city needs to “get ahead of it by coming up with the best plan of preparedness, prevention, and education that we can.”

The measure was presented to the council and described by its sponsor; the transcript does not record a formal vote or the council’s final action on the bill.