National Fire Plan
America´s National Fire Plan
(IFFN No. 27 – July 2002, p. 14-16)
Every year weather and fuel specialists predict the potential for wildland fire activity across the United States based on weather patterns, drought conditions, and the dryness of the vegetation. The one factor for which its potential cannot be predicted, however, is lightning, and the amount and location of lightning may mean the difference between a mild and a severe fire season.
In the summer of 2000, the potential for a severe fire season based on weather and fuel conditions was very real when the last factor lightning fell into place. The result was widespread fires that were erratic, intense, and explosive. The fires not only threatened people and firefighters but destroyed property and damaged natural resources.
In early August, then-President Clinton visited the Burgdorf Junction Fire, near McCall, Idaho, to see firsthand the fire situation in the West. During that trip, President Clinton asked the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to develop recommendations on how to reduce the impacts of fire on rural communities and ensure sufficient firefighting resources for the future. They responded with Managing the Impacts of Wildfires on Communities and the Environment: A Report to the President in Response to the Wildfires of 2000,which is also known as the National Fire Plan.
Congress then supported the Presidents Report with a budget appropriation for the federal agencies in 2001 of nearly $2.9 billion ($1.9 for the Forest Service and $979 million for Interior), and in 2002, nearly $2.3 billion.
The National Fire Plan is, in essence, a long-term commitment founded on interagency and intergovernmental partnerships and cooperation to enhance the wildland firefighting response, reduce the threat of fire to communities and natural resources, restore and rehabilitate lands damaged by fire and, most importantly, increase the safety of the public and firefighters. The Plan recognizes that wildlands did not deteriorate overnight to the point where fires that occur become large and threatening, but that it took many decades of effective fire suppression for fuels to accumulate and land health to suffer, and it will take many years to correct the problem. The Plan emphasizes the importance of treating hazardous fuel prior to a fire starting rather than
What the National Fire Plan Looks Like
The National Fire Plan contains five key points: 1)Firefighting – ensure firefighting resources are adequate; 2) Rehabilitation and Restoration – restore landscapes and rebuild communities; 3) Hazardous Fuel
The 2001 appropriation provided 100 percent of the funding firefighting agencies needed to respond to fires at the most efficient and safe
Fire Facilities Maintenance and Construction
Adequate fire facilities are critical to efficient and safe fire operations. Funding was provided in the 2001 appropriation for maintenance and capital improvement of wildland fire facilities such as air tanker bases (tankers are critical to initial attack), crew facilities, engine houses and
With funding provided through the National Fire Plan and 2001 appropriation, additional equipment was purchased including 406wildland firefighting engines, 56 bulldozers, 14 tractor plows
Fire Science Research and Technology Development
Since 1998 the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) has been developing science-based, interagency approaches in fuels inventory and mapping, evaluation of fuels treatments, scheduling of fuels treatments, and monitoring of treatment effects and effectiveness. The 2001 appropriation doubled funding to $16.6 million for the JFSP, helping to fund 22 research projects focused on gathering information and developing tools to help firefighters better prepare for wildfires and allocate firefighting resources. This research included identifying smoke transport patterns, predicting fire weather conditions, and improving fire risk assessments. All of this work helps firefighters make critical safety decisions; guide
Rehabilitation and Restoration
Short-term rehabilitation projects help prevent further damage to ecosystems and communities as a result of fire, while long-term restoration projects help improve land unlikely to recover naturally from fire, prevent invasions of noxious weeds and exotic species, and reduce disease and bug infestations. Total funding for rehabilitation and restoration work in the2001 appropriation was about $246 million, allowing treatment on 2.5 million acres of land through 549 projects in 19 states. Projects in the wildland-urban
About $400 million was provided in the 2001appropriation for fuel management and reduction to address dense forest vegetation resulting from decades of wildfire suppression and fire exclusion on federal lands. Activities focus on wildland-urban interface areas to reduce the risks of fire to people and property. These projects helped support local communities by using local contractors and assistance. Fuel treatments were
Rural, Volunteer and State Fire Assistance
Safe and effective fire suppression in the wildland-urban interface demands close coordination between rural, local, state, tribal and federal firefighting agencies. The 2001 and 2002 appropriations earmarked $10 million for a new Department of the Interior rural fire assistance program. This funding helped enhance the fire protection capabilities of rural fire departments through training, equipment purchase and prevention work on a cost-shared basis
A critical element of the National Fire Plan is to help the public understand wildland fire and the challenges it presents where wildlands intermingle with urban and suburban lands. FIREWISE, a program with an online web site, publications, videos, and training events, provides educational programs and materials to help people create wildland fire resistant homes and communities. Through the National Fire Plan, $5 million was used for
In the 2001 appropriation, Congress directed the secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to work with individual states and tribes to develop a list of communities in the wildland-urban interface at high risk from wildfire. Based on this list, 1,776 communities in the vicinity of Interior or Forest Service lands were scheduled to receive hazardous fuel treatments. Additional communities, not in the vicinity of federal land, had
One of the cornerstones of the National Fire Plan is accountability. Indeed, the success of the Plan depends upon
What Happens Next
In August 2001 the Secretaries of Agriculture andInterior joined the Western Governors Association, National Association ofState Foresters, National Association of Counties and the Intertribal TimberCouncil in endorsing A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland FireRisks to Communities and the Environment: A 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy.The strategy outlines a comprehensive approach to managing wildland fire, hazardous fuel, and ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation on
https://www.fs.fed.us/database/budgetoffice/NFP_final32601.pdf
In August 2000, when 86 fires were burning in 12 western states and nearly20,000 firefighters were on the lines or in support positions, no one could imagine a silver lining in the cloud. Yet thats exactly what the National Fire Plan has become. Federal wildland agencies and their state partners are more prepared than ever before to stop fires while theyre small, reduce the threat of wildland fire to people, communities and natural resources, and rehabilitate or restore land damaged by fire. No, fires that grow large, dangerous and threatening will not be eliminated overnight it took decades for the land to deteriorate to the point where these types of fires occur but with the National Fire Plan federal and state agencies at least have a
IFFN/GFMC contribution submitted by:
Nancy Lull
Bureau of Land Management
National Interagency Fire Center
Boise, Idaho 83705-5354
https://www.nifc.gov
