President creates Interagency Wildland Fire Subcabinet

American Elk prescribed fire Wind Cave National Park
A firefighter ignites the American Elk prescribed fire in Wind Cave National Park, October 20, 2010. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

With only six days remaining in his presidency, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) January 14 establishing an Interagency Wildland Fire Subcabinet.

One of the reasons given for creating the organization was “federal wildland fire management lacks a single focal point of responsibility for policy leadership and accountability for cost controls,” and, “agencies do not adequately or effectively coordinate with each other at the policy level to reduce hazardous fuels and wildfire severity.”

Co-chaired by the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, the other members will be Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Director of the National Economic Council.

The EO requires that the group submit a strategic plan within 180 days addressing a lengthy list of issues, emphasizing cross-boundary and interagency coordination and planning, including:

  • Effectively managing preparedness resources, initial attack response, extended attack and large-fire support.
  • Developing and adopting additional hazardous fuels performance measures that go beyond the traditional output reporting of total acreage for fuel removal.
  • Develop fire suppression performance measures that demonstrate strategic use of high-cost human capital, equipment, and aircraft as opposed to traditional reliance on overwhelming force.
  • Developing and adopting new technologies to improve the safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of suppression operations.
  • Developing and adopting data-driven decision-making, allowing for better integration of wildland fire research and development into ground-level suppression operations and hazardous fuel mitigation.
  • Evaluating personnel policies to ensure that they allow for the year-round availability of a well-trained firefighting force at all levels.
  • Evaluate policies that deal with the fire safety of powerlines.
  • Examine how compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act may negatively affect hazardous fuel reduction projects.
  • Reduce unnecessary duplication by coordinating and consolidating existing wildland fire related councils, working groups, and other formal cross-agency initiatives, as appropriate.

“While I am proud of our progress to promote active management, reduce hazardous fuels, work across boundaries and increase the resiliency of our nation’s forests and grasslands, I believe more can be done,” said Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “With the establishment of a subcabinet dedicated exclusively to wildland fire management, we will be better equipped to prevent and fight wildfires, ensuring these national treasures will continue to be enjoyed by future generations of Americans.”

“Firefighter and civilian lives lost, as well as economic, social, and ecological impacts demonstrate a need to change,” said Tom Harbour, former National Director of Fire and Aviation Management for the U.S. Forest Service. “While I am confident the incoming Administration will display a thoughtful perspective on wildland fire, many of the actions described in the new Executive Order, even at this late date, have merit. Important questions remain, for example, how will the States engage in developing comprehensive solutions? President Trump has now given those of us engaged in wildland fire his ideas on how to improve. I am confident President Biden and his team will consider the new Executive Order, adjust as needed, and offer additional ideas about improving the wildland fire management system.”

Many of these goals appear to be laudable. It is interesting that they may be looking to downplay the importance of attacking new fires with overwhelming force.

There appears to be substantial overlap between this new subcabinet and the Wildland Fire Leadership Council which was established in April 2002. It was convened by the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Defense, and Homeland Security and is “dedicated to consistent implementation of wildland fire policies, goals, and management activities.”

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Robert, L., & Al.

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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.

12 thoughts on “President creates Interagency Wildland Fire Subcabinet”

  1. What did the Indians learn about managing fire prone landscape over hundreds of generations?
    “Stitch in time saves nine”

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  2. Too much hubris!
    Strange how there is no discussion of indigenous land management practices and building on their hundreds of generations of experience and learning

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  3. I hope the results justify the hype. But, plowing the same ground over and over is tiring and unproductive. I fear a reconstituted group will only rediscover what’s already been documented. Reworked goals and a new report will be meaningless without action.

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  4. Albeit, any focus on this is good, but what about our boots on the ground? They need a better firefighting product. Water is the best and most effective at cooling these fires, but very precious. I hope that’s on the discussion table. I know many companies are working on making a chemical free product for our firefighters, one is GreenFire. Another is f3. I hope this cabinet is open to the new technologies as they say they are.

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    1. Bravo! Finally a sane , common sense approach. They can spend all the money on the planning by professionals and funding of super global air tankers but the fuels and suppression crews are who gets the work done. What killed us was the professional series (401) wiping out the fire leadership in taking away the (462, 455) series professionals and consent decrees that decimated the pool of experienced highly qualified recruits, to give us a new generation of Overfed.
      When we lost internally grown leadership and appointee’s like Perdue bought their status, we lost advocacy for the land and employee’s. It was like a ship without the rudder and the best land managers and firemen left, recruited by agencies and private corporations that valued them and called them and paid them as professional firefighters.

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  5. This looks like a particularly useless gesture — none of those folks will have a job in 4 days and the incoming administration will re-organize however they think appropriate. It reeks of the fanatasy DJT has that he’s somehow going to still be in office in a week.

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  6. What a waste of taxpayer money! What’s needed is good leadership at the Secretary, Under Secretary, and Chief’s level to DIRECT greatly increased forest management. What’s needed is a Secretary that will go before Congress and actively seek greater funding for fuel treatment (not “managed wildfire” as currently being used by the USFS).
    What’s needed is a Secretary that will pursue Emergency Authority (under the Stafford Act or otherwise) to address the multi-State issue of 90 million acres of dead and dying forests throughout the entire Western U.S., nand for Congress to call for a Inter-State Unified Command structure to partial out a strategy for “fixing the problem,” sooner, rather than later. It’s absolutely disgusting how long this major problem has been allowed to lay unaddressed. Another committee will do nothing but “kick the can down the road.”

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      1. We got the goodbye email from Sonny this week and I loved reading every word of it. Not that it was inspiring or well written, but just knowing that he was leaving. Vilsack is not going to be a dynamic leader or anything but he shouldn’t be worse than Purdue.

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  7. It’s been needed for many years. Also need to drop some regulations on getting logging going again.
    I think it’s a great idea.

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    1. I was a member of WLFC from 2006 to 2007, under President George W. Bush.
      There is no reason to create a new Council, period. But the present WLFC needs a membership that is not top heavy with Fed. Administrative Chief’s. It needs to have an equal number of non-Fed members. Every motion that I made to improve the situation was eventually voted down by the Fed Chief’s because of an unbalanced voting situation.

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