|
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is bringing much-needed support across the country to increase the resilience of lands facing the threat of wildland fires. In fiscal year 2022, the Interior Department allocated approximately $180 million from the law to support wildfire risk reduction and resilience efforts nationwide.
The funding provided temporary pay improvements for our federal wildland firefighters. It also supports efforts to reduce wildfire risk, increase local firefighting capacity, support post-fire rehabilitation, further wildfire science, and expand firefighter training. Highlights include:
- $81 million to reduce wildfire risk
- $58 million for improved firefighter pay
- $20 million to rehabilitate burned areas
These investments through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will continue through 2026 and, combined with the Department’s regular funding, will expand efforts to address the threat of wildfires.
Read more in our blog post on Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments in 2022.
Members of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission met for the first time in Salt Lake City, Utah, on September 14-15 to begin crafting federal policy recommendations and strategies on ways to better prevent, manage, suppress, and recover from record wildfires across the West.
Established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the commission is composed of representatives from federal agencies; state, local, and Tribal governments; and representatives from the private sector.
The commission will meet regularly moving forward. It is tasked with preparing policy recommendations and submitting it to Congress within a year of its first in-person meeting. Learn more about the commission’s inaugural meeting.
Through annual funding opportunities, the Joint Fire Science Program invests in important research to support land management agencies in addressing issues associated with wildfire. Each effort is only successful when the research makes its way into the hands of land managers, practitioners, and policymakers to inform their work.
With the historic increase in funding for wildfire management provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Joint Fire Science Program will expand its efforts with an additional $20 million over five years.
Since its inception, the program has offered an annual funding cycle. This open, competitive solicitation seeks peer-reviewed proposals for wildfire research priorities.
The funding opportunities for fiscal year 2023 are now open. The Joint Fire Science Program is soliciting proposals from both government and non-government entities in three categories. Those involved in wildfire science are encouraged to apply. Proposals are due by December 20, 2022.
Learn more in our blog post on the Joint Fire Science Program.
One of the most powerful tools used to fight catastrophic wildfires is land management. Land managers can carefully control and remove potential fuel for wildfires to reduce risk. However, understanding the effectiveness of fuel management strategies can be difficult as wildfires take place in a variety of regions and ecosystems, creating a multitude of variables.
The Interior Department’s interagency Wildland Fire Fuels Data Management Team created a pilot project to address this unique challenge. It employed a knowledge graph, which took existing data about fuel projects and linked the data elements to uncover new insights about fuel and risk management. The flexibility of the knowledge graph allowed all partners to define their unique vocabularies and data while also enabling more consistency across agencies through reference data sets.
The Federal Chief Data Officer Council (CDOC) recently recognized the team for its exceptional work. It presented them with the Distinguished Achievement in Federal Data Award for developing innovative data practices that benefit the nation.
The knowledge graph is transforming data governance in a complex, interagency environment. This pilot program demonstrated how it can promote coordination between partners across diverse landscapes, helping land management agencies more successfully reduce hazardous fuels and decrease the risk of wildfires.
Women in the United States have been fighting fires for centuries. The first all-women wildland fire crew was created by the California Department of Forestry 80 years ago. Nevertheless, women are underrepresented in firefighting positions across local, state, and federal agencies.
When women don’t see themselves reflected in a profession, recruiting a diverse workforce often becomes more challenging. That challenge is increased by persistent perceptions that the physically demanding nature of the job should preclude women, despite the long history of exceptional female firefighters who have proven otherwise.
While some progress has been made in recent years, more work is needed. Today at the Department of the Interior, women comprise about 20 percent of the wildland fire workforce, and female representation drops off steeply in senior positions. At the National Park Service, women make up less than two percent of wildland fire leadership positions at the regional and national levels.
In the summer of 2021, the National Park Service launched a pilot program to create two all-women fire crews. The crews were employed through a partnership with the California and Montana conservations corps, which engage young adults in service to address conservation needs. The initiative was funded through a $200,000 grant from the National Park Foundation.
Learn more in our blog post on the National Park Service pilot program.
After two years of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I didn’t know what to expect during an internship in Washington, DC. I knew the big city environment would be much different than in my rural home state, Montana. I worried that if the Department of the Interior’s Office of Wildland Fire was working virtually, I would not get the “true” internship experience.
I was pleasantly surprised to find this fear would not become the reality. The Office of Wildland Fire staff welcomed me with open arms.
After 12 weeks with fabulous mentors, I developed new skills and acquired lots of knowledge. I learned about major issues, such as climate change, and opportunities related to wildland fire management, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
There were also some very unexpected highlights. A set of bullet points I prepared was read by the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, during a meeting on wildland fire management.
Read more about Abby’s internship experience.
As we enter a new fiscal year this fall, we’re beginning to tally our accomplishments. While those numbers are still coming in, we’re looking back at our accomplishments in fiscal year 2021.
The 2021 fire year continued a pattern of increased wildfire activity, more acres burned, and some fires that grew to an enormous size. Nearly 59,000 wildfires burned 7.1 million acres nationwide, including nearly 1 million acres of lands managed by the Interior Department and Tribes.
The Interior Department worked tirelessly to protect people, communities, and our public lands from wildfires last year. Some of the highlights include:
- Employing 5,400 federal and 915 Tribal fire response personnel.
-
Converting 550 temporary or seasonal firefighters to permanent or full-time positions.
- Implementing President Biden’s pay initiative to ensure all firefighters received at least $15 an hour.
- Treating burnable vegetation on 1.6 million acres.
- Completing emergency stabilization on nearly 430,000 acres.
- Rehabilitating approximately 900,000 acres of fire-impacted landscapes.
- Managing a diverse portfolio of over 60 computer applications that enhance interagency communication, the exchange of data, and decision support across the wildland fire community.
- Began installing rollover protection systems in fire vehicles.
-
Piloted location-based technology to better track personnel across increasingly large wildfires.
Learn more about how the Interior Department’s Wildland Fire Management Program helped to improve resiliency to wildfires, mitigate risk, respond to fires, and rehabilitate burned areas in the Office of Wildland Fire’s Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2021.
We are excited to announce that Commander KJ Green with the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) recently accepted an assignment with the Office of Wildland Fire. As the wildland firefighter behavioral health clinical administrator, KJ will play an important role in the development and implementation of the joint wildland firefighter health and wellbeing program.
KJ comes to us from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he was the Director of Behavioral Health and Wellness. In that role, KJ oversaw the creation and management of a program dedicated to ensuring every beneficiary who experienced signs of mental health or substance use issues had access to high-quality services in a supportive culture that encouraged treatment.
He previously served the Department of Defense in various leadership and clinical behavioral health positions and locations, including a hospital emergency department and a Warrior Transition Unit.
Before commissioning as an officer in the USPHS, KJ operated a private therapy practice in Indiana. He has a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University, a Master of Social Work from Indiana University, and is currently completing a Doctor of Behavioral Health from Arizona State University. KJ holds a license to practice clinical social work and is a Board Certified Diplomate with the American Board of Clinical Social Work.
|
Please join us in wishing Chuck Wamack well in his retirement.
Chuck worked at the Office of Wildland Fire for the past six years, where he was the business lead for the Integrated Reporting of Wildland Fire Information (IRWIN) platform and the WildCAD computer-aided dispatch system.
This position was a capstone to over 40 years of service to the country in or around firefighting. Chuck began his focus on wildland firefighting in 1988.
|
|
