DOINews: DOI Office of Wildland Fire: National Strategy for Wildland Fire Management Announced

The National Cohesive Strategy takes a holistic approach to the future of wildland fire management by establishing a framework of working together across landscapes, with our partners, to achieve Cohesive Strategy goals: Restore and maintain landscapes, Fire Adapted Communities, and Wildfire Response. Photo by Ally Steinmetz of the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project.

Learn more about the National Cohesive Strategy.

Wildfire has always been a natural part of many landscapes across the nation; however, changing climate conditions, vegetation stressed by insects, disease, invasive species, and the continued expansion of the wildland urban interface have dramatically increased fire risks and costs. As the complexity of wildfire management changes, so has the approach to addressing and mitigating risk across a diversity of landscapes and human-communities.

In April, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the completion of The National Strategy:The Final Phase in the Development of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (National Cohesive Strategy). The National Cohesive Strategy responds to the current needs for a cohesive and collaborative approach to wildfire risk by establishing an 'all-hands, all-lands' framework to improve efficiencies and effectiveness from a coordinated landscape-scale perspective.

The National Cohesive Strategy includes shared national goals, principles, and management actions to address our most significant challenges.Utilizing risk-based analysis to evaluate choices, the National Cohesive Strategy illustrates opportunities for all stakeholders to collaboratively plan and respond effectively through a coordinated, disciplined approach.

Implementation of the National Cohesive Strategy will be undertaken in the same manner it was created - with recognition of the differences among stakeholders across the country and a vision of how we can collectively achieve more together.The National Action Plan: An Implementation Framework for the National Cohesive Strategy is the companion to the National Cohesive Strategy.The National Action Plan outlines a cohesive framework for implementation actions and activities necessary at various scales and by the various stakeholders.Through the National Cohesive Strategy the National Action Plan, stakeholders from federal, state, local, territorial, tribal governments, non-governmental partners, and public stakeholders have identified a path forward for realizing the shared vision for the future of wildland fire management.

Submitted by: DOI Office of Wildland Fire
May 13, 2014

Related Link:

DOI Office of Wildland Fire