Of the five major federal land management agencies, only the Bureau of Land Management has fully complied with the fire policy requirement that all burnable acres have fire management plans. Agencies Have Not Yet Obtained All of the Additional Fire- Fighting Personnel and Equipment to Meet Needs They Identified

While the agencies don’t have a clear sense of the total resources they need to effectively conduct their fire-fighting activities, the Forest Service and Interior have nonetheless made progress in acquiring more fire- fighting personnel and equipment with the additional funding received under the National Fire Plan. The Forest Service’s performance measure is designed to provide information on the amount of personnel and equipment it has to respond to a fire. They are now working together to develop a common set of wildland fire management performance measures that will be results- oriented, measurable, valid, and connected to the goals contained in the National Fire Plan. Forest Service and Interior Use Different Methods for Reporting Fire- Fighting Personnel Costs

Until the implementation of the National Fire Plan in 2001, both the Forest Service and the Interior agencies used a similar method to account for their fire-fighting personnel costs. The agencies plan to have consistent, results-oriented performance measures in place by fiscal year 2004. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

The overall objective of this review was to determine how the federal land management agencies the Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior prepare for wildland fires while meeting key objectives of the National Fire Plan.
Why GAO Did This Study

Each year, fires on federal lands burn millions of acres and federal land management agencies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fight them. Wildland fires also threaten communities adjacent to federal lands. The Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and the Interior, the lead federal agencies in fighting wildfires, jointly developed a long-term fire-fighting strategy in September 2000. Five federal land management agencies--the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service--are working together to accomplish the plan's objectives.

What GAO Found

GAO found that the Forest Service and Interior have not effectively determined the amount of personnel and equipment needed to respond to and suppress wildland fires. Although the agencies have acquired considerably more personnel and equipment than were available in 2000, they have not acquired all of the resources needed to implement the new strategy. Despite having received substantial additional funding, the two agencies have not yet developed performance measures. The Forest Service simply measures the amount of fire-fighting resources it will be able to devote to fire fighting at each location, regardless of risk. Without results-oriented performance measures, it is difficult to hold the Forest Service accountable for the results it achieves. The Forest Service and the Interior agencies use different methods to report fire-fighting personnel costs--an approach that is not in keeping with policies requiring coordination and consistency across all aspects of fire management, including accounting for fire-related costs.