Large intense fires in these and other ecosystems also  increasingly threaten human lives, health, property, and infrastructure in  the wildland-urban interface. Important Progress Has Been Made in Addressing Federal Wildland Fire Management Problems over the Last 5 Years

The federal government has made important progress over the last 5 years  in improving its management of wildland fire. Nationally, it has worked to  formulate a comprehensive strategy, established a priority to protect  communities in the wildland-urban interface, and increased funding for  wildland fire management activities, including fuels reduction and  suppression. At the local level, it enhanced its data and research on  wildland fire problems, made significant progress in developing local fire  management plans, and improved coordination among federal agencies  and collaboration with nonfederal partners. In addition, it strengthened its  overall accountability for investments in wildland fire activities by  establishing more meaningful goals and performance measures. This measure will allow them to  better determine the extent to which their fuel reduction efforts  accomplish the key goal of reducing risks to communities and ecosystems. The agencies also made progress in developing a system to monitor the  effects of wildland fires. Agencies Face Several Challenges to Completing a Long-Needed Cohesive Strategy for Reducing Fuels and Responding to Wildland Fire Problems

While federal land management agencies have made important progress  over the past 5 years in addressing wildland fire management issues, they  continue to face a number of challenges that will need to be met if they are  to complete development of a cohesive strategy that explicitly identifies  available long-term options and funding needed to reduce fuels on national  forests and rangelands and respond to the nation’s wildland fire threats. Without a cohesive strategy and better  data, agencies will have difficulty determining the extent and severity of  the wildland fire problem, targeting and coordinating their efforts and  resources, and resolving the problem in a timely and cost-effective manner. A clear understanding of the  options and funding needs are essential to both the agencies and the  Congress for determining the most effective and affordable approach. These steps include (1) completing and implementing the LANDFIRE data  and modeling system so that the extent and location of wildland fire threats  are more precisely known, (2) updating local fire management plans with  more precise LANDFIRE information and the latest research so that the  most promising wildland fire management practices are included to  effectively address wildland fire threats, and (3) based on these plans,  identifying the various national options and related funding needed to  reduce fuels and respond to wildland fire threats. The agencies need LANDFIRE  to more precisely identify the extent and location of wildland fire threats  and better target fuel reduction efforts. The agencies have several efforts  under way that should help them identify these options and funding needs. In order for the Congress to make  informed decisions about effective and affordable long-term approaches  for addressing our nation’s wildland fire problems, it should have, as soon  as possible, a broad range of long-term options and related funding needed  to reduce and maintain wildland fuels at acceptable levels and respond to  wildland fire threats. Recommendation for Executive Action

We recommend that the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior provide  the Congress, in time for its consideration of the agencies’ fiscal year 2006  wildland fire management budgets, with a joint tactical plan outlining the  critical steps the agencies will take, together with related time frames, to  complete a cohesive strategy that identifies long-term options and needed  funding for reducing and maintaining fuels at acceptable levels and  responding to the nation’s wildland fire problems. Wildland Fires: Forest Service’s Removal of Timber Burned by Wildland  Fires. Forest Service: A Framework for Improving Accountability.
Why GAO Did This Study

Over the past two decades, the number of acres burned by wildland fires has surged, often threatening human lives, property, and ecosystems. Past management practices, including a concerted federal policy in the 20th century of suppressing fires to protect communities and ecosystem resources, unintentionally resulted in steady accumulation of dense vegetation that fuels large, intense, wildland fires. While such fires are normal in some ecosystems, in others they can cause catastrophic damage to resources as well as to communities near wildlands known as the wildland-urban interface. In 1999, GAO recommended that the Forest Service develop a cohesive strategy for responding to wildland fire threats. As a follow-up, 5 years later, GAO was asked to identify the (1) progress the federal government has made in responding to wildland fire threats and (2) challenges it will need to address within the next 5 years.

What GAO Found

Over the last 5 years, the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture and land management agencies in the Department of the Interior, working with the Congress, have made important progress in responding to wildland fires. The agencies have adopted various national strategy documents addressing the need to reduce wildland fire risks; established a priority for protecting communities in the wildland-urban interface; and increased efforts and amounts of funding committed to addressing wildland fire problems, including preparedness, suppression, and fuel reduction on federal lands. In addition, the agencies have begun improving their data and research on wildland fire problems, made progress in developing long-needed fire management plans that identify actions for effectively addressing wildland fire threats at the local level, and improved federal interagency coordination and collaboration with nonfederal partners. The agencies also have strengthened overall accountability for their investments in wildland fire activities by establishing improved performance measures and a framework for monitoring results. While the agencies have adopted various strategy documents to address the nation's wildland fire problems, none of these documents constitutes a cohesive strategy that explicitly identifies the long-term options and related funding needed to reduce fuels in national forests and rangelands and to respond to wildland fire threats. Both the agencies and the Congress need a comprehensive assessment of the fuel reduction options and related funding needs to determine the most effective and affordable long-term approach for addressing wildland fire problems. Completing a cohesive strategy that identifies long-term options and needed funding will require finishing several efforts now under way, each with its own challenges. The agencies will need to finish planned improvements in a key data and modeling system--LANDFIRE--to more precisely identify the extent and location of wildland fire threats and to better target fuel reduction efforts. In implementing LANDFIRE, the agencies will need more consistent approaches to assessing wildland fire risks, more integrated information systems, and better understanding of the role of climate in wildland fire. In addition, local fire management plans will need to be updated with data from LANDFIRE and from emerging agency research on more cost-effective approaches to reducing fuels. Completing a new system designed to identify the most cost-effective means for allocating fire management budget resources--Fire Program Analysis--may help to better identify long-term options and related funding needs. Without completing these tasks, the agencies will have difficulty determining the extent and location of wildland fire threats, targeting and coordinating their efforts and resources, and resolving wildland fire problems in the most timely and cost-effective manner over the long term.