It’s no secret that wildfire is America’s most pressing fire problem. Destructive fires that just a few short years ago were an anomaly are now commonplace. The scale of destruction has become almost apocalyptic.
A growing crisis
Since 2000, over 100,000 structures have been destroyed by wildfire. Recent analysis by Jennifer Balch, PhD, found that fires today burn 249% faster than at the turn of the century. “Fast” fires are occurring year-round, leaving us with the term “fire year” instead of “fire season.” Furthermore, wildfire is no longer solely a Western problem, with significant fires occurring in states such as Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, New York and New Jersey.
Wildfire is also having indirect financial impacts on wildfire-prone communities across the country. Due to catastrophic wildfire losses, many communities throughout the West are experiencing an insurance crisis in which the price of property insurance has risen dramatically, that is, if property insurance can be obtained at all.
Presidential proposal
The many impacts of wildfire have led to a focus on improving our fire suppression capabilities. This need has not gone unnoticed at every level of government. In fact, it was somewhat extraordinary to see wildfire called out as a top-line priority in the President’s FY 2026 Discretionary Funding Request (President’s Budget). Specifically, the President’s Budget proposes a new Federal Wildland Fire Service (FWFS) that would be “distinct in command and appropriation from existing wildland firefighting agencies and would streamline Federal wildfire suppression response, risk mitigation efforts, and coordination with non-Federal partners to combat the wildfire crisis.”
Our current federal wildland firefighting system was developed incrementally over the past century, with each federal land management agency having its own wildland firefighting capability. The President’s Budget would consolidate the wildland firefighting capability of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and National Park Service (NPS) into a single federal wildland firefighting agency within the Department of Interior (DOI). This concept has been discussed for many years, and was most recently proposed in the Fit for Purpose Wildfire Readiness Act of 2025 (S. 441) as well as a draft Executive Order that has been widely circulated within the wildfire suppression community.
The fundamental argument made by these proposals is that a single federal wildfire firefighting agency would be more efficient and more effective due to the singular focus on fire suppression. This premise arises from the fact that there is a duplication of effort and management for each of the wildfire suppression programs within each agency. It is also notable that wildfire suppression is not the only function of each of the existing federal agencies, as they have a primary land management mission.
Another argument for the FWFS is that wildfire suppression requires a centralized command and control structure. Not only are there five federal wildfire agencies, but each of these agencies has somewhat different structures for their wildfire suppression programs, all with some degree of decentralization of authority and decision-making.
Currently, the seemingly disparate goals and systems of each federal fire agency are addressed using joint initiatives, all of which include representation of federal, tribal, state and local government to reduce the formation of operational silos. Specifically, the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) is responsible for allocating resources (engines, aircraft, hand crews, etc.) to various regions when resources become scarce. The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) supports interoperability through the development of standards, training, qualifications and best practices. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) provides logistical and intelligence support for the national wildfire suppression enterprise. Finally, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) provides oversight of the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy as well as shepherding the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy).
Given the stated goal of implementing the FWFS on an expedited timeline, it will be important to integrate existing efforts and structures with their demonstrated effectiveness with the FWFS. Failure to provide for this integration will result in delays in operationalizing the FWFS, loss of institutional knowledge, and unnecessary “recreating the wheel.”
New approach, new tech
The current wildfire crisis is due, in part, to the aggressive fire suppression policies of the last century. It is essential that the FWFS has the latitude to allow wildfire to burn when appropriate. This will require that we continue to build the capability to have cutting-edge wildfire modeling and decision support tools available to incident commanders, decision-makers in local communities and the FWFS. Several bills have been introduced to create a wildfire information center that could harness the power of wildfire detection systems, advanced reconnaissance systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced computational power — all to create these outputs that will provide highly accurate prediction of a wildfire’s impacts, not only on the scale of hours but on a scale of weeks.
National mutual-aid system
While the FWFS will be an important component of the wildland firefighting system, it is worth noting that federal wildland firefighters represent just a fraction of the current wildland firefighting resources. To truly build the nation’s wildland firefighting capability, there is an urgent need to tap into the underutilized resource that our Nation’s 1.1 million local government firefighters represent. The current mobilization systems are effective at mobilizing federal resources but fail at rapidly mobilizing local government firefighters. As such, the creation of the FWFS should be accompanied by a national mutual-aid system that can rapidly deploy firefighters across the nation, regardless of the land ownership of the fire.
Beyond fire suppression
The creation of the FWFS will be the largest change in the wildland firefighting complex in decades. It is critically important that we remember that our wildfire problem is complex, and fire suppression is just one of the tools to address the wildfire crisis.
The National Cohesive Wildfire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy) – which was developed by federal, state, tribal and local partners – acknowledges that wildfire is not just an issue of fire suppression. The Cohesive Strategy has three equally important pillars: resilient landscapes, fire-adapted communities, and safe and effective response.
- The concept of resilient landscapes refers to the land surrounding our communities being maintained so that there is not an unnatural buildup of fuels. In this desired condition, fires burn with lower intensity, which reduces the destructive impacts of fire on lands and watersheds, and allows fire to play its natural role in a fire dependent ecosystem. This condition can be achieved through a combination of mechanical fuels management, prescribed fire and wildfires that burn at low to moderate intensity. Unfortunately, the President’s Budget includes a proposed decrease of $303 million of funding to state and local governments. This decrease is accompanied by this statement: “While the Budget provides robust support for Federal wildland fire management activities alongside States and local partners, these partners should be encouraged to fund their own community preparedness and risk mitigation activities.”
- The concept of fire-adapted communities acknowledges that fires are a natural occurrence, and we need to design and maintain our communities in a state in which they can receive wildfires without having widespread structural loss. This is achieved through a combination of community design, structural hardening and the creation of defensible space.
- Safe and effective response consists of having an adequate fire suppression response that can safely suppress wildfires and protect the built environment without undue risk to firefighters. It is important to acknowledge that many of the fires that have catastrophic impacts are “unstoppable fires” – there is no amount of fire suppression capability that will stop these fires during the extreme fire weather conditions that drive them. In fact, these “fast fires” constitute only 3% of all wildfires, yet they cause more than 80% of all structural loss. The only way to lessen the impacts of fast fires is to have resilient landscapes and fire-adapted communities.
The big picture
By definition, the FWFS will not be a land management agency. The FWFS will need to have seamless lines of communication and coordination with traditional land management agencies and the important functions they serve in informing land management decisions. The FWFS will also need to coordinate closely with state and local government fire agencies that play a pivotal role in all three legs of the Cohesive Strategy. While the FWFS has the potential to improve the federal wildland firefighting systems, we cannot lose sight of the importance of resilient landscapes and fire adapted communities.
