Federal Wildfire Activities

Wildfires on federal lands consume million of acres of forests, grasslands, and desert acres each year. The fires also threaten human lives and property on state and private lands adjacent to federal lands. In 1998 alone, more than 81,000 fires consumed 2.3 million acres. The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually to prepare for and control wildfires on federal lands. This report provides information on how the Forest Service and the Bureau manage their wildfire programs. GAO found that the agencies use the same process to develop their wildfire preparedness budgets. This includes the use of a model that determines, on the basis of historical data such as fire activity, weather, and suppression costs, the most efficient funding level for a firefighting organization.

GAO noted that: (1) the Forest Service and BLM use the same process to develop their wildfire preparedness budgets; (2) this includes the use of a model that determines, on the basis of historical data such as fire activity, weather, and suppression costs, the most efficient funding level for a firefighting organization; (3) the most efficient funding level is based on a calculation that minimizes fire suppression costs and the loss of natural resources on the lands; (4) for fiscal years 1996 through 1999, the agencies received about 85 percent of the wildfire preparedness funds they estimated they would need; (5) while the National Interagency Fire Center does not play a role in determining where firefighting resources should be located before a fire season begins, it is the nation's logistical support center for controlling and extinguishing wildfires; (6) as such, it coordinates the mobilization of firefighting supplies, equipment, and personnel at the federal, regional, and local levels; (7) as local and regional firefighting resources are depleted during a fire season, regional geographic coordination centers located throughout the United States obtain additional firefighting personnel and equipment through the National Interagency Coordination Center at the Fire Center; (8) to provide mutual support in suppressing wildfires, the Forest Service and BLM have entered into numerous agreements and other types of cooperative efforts with other federal, state, and local firefighting organizations; (9) while no single type of agreement appears to be better than another, agency officials agreed that without these agreements and other types of cooperative efforts, it would be virtually impossible for any firefighting organization, including the Forest Service and BLM, to manage its firefighting program; (10) several issues could affect the agencies' ability to manage their firefighting programs in the future; (11) the agencies' firefighting workforce is shrinking because some workers are no longer willing to take on firefighting as a collateral duty while employees with expertise in fire management are nearing retirement age; (12) the Forest Service and BLM are implementing a new radio technology but are purchasing different radio systems that may not be able to communicate with each other or with the systems used by other firefighting organizations; (13) the Forest Service is using an outdated test to measure the physical fitness of its firefighters; and (14) although it plans to use the same up-to-date physical fitness test that BLM uses, when it will do so is uncertain.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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