About

By unifying wildland fire management across the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Office of Aviation Services, Office of Wildland Fire, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Interior Department is building a more efficient, effective wildfire response system that it is better equipped to protect lives, communities, and ecosystems. 

The U.S. Wildland Fire Service works to reduce wildfire risk through proactive fuels management; create fire-resilient landscapes; advance wildland fire science and technology; promote fire-adapted communities; and respond to wildfires in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and our tribal, state and local partners. 

By the Numbers 

• Provides wildland fire management on over 500 million acres of public and tribal lands.
• Employs 5,780 federal wildland fire personnel annually.
• Supports approximately 900 tribal wildland fire personnel. 

Why We Were Created 

Wildfires are costing the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars annually. They are damaging infrastructure, disrupting agriculture, driving up food prices and threatening lives and livelihoods. Beyond the threat to landscapes across the country, increasingly extreme, more frequent wildfires also pose a risk to our national security, public health, energy and water supplies. 

In response to this escalating threat, President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order 14308, Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response, which directs federal agencies to streamline and modernize wildland fire management nationwide. 

To implement this order, the Department of the Interior issued Secretary's Order 3443, Elevating and Unifying DOI’s Wildland Fire Management Program, which directs the establishment of U.S. Wildland Fire Service within the Interior Department. 

The U.S. Wildland Fire Service represents a historic effort to build a unified, modern wildfire response system that truly meets the needs of the United States now and into the future and that is capable of tackling the wildfire crisis with the speed, coordination and resources it demands. 

What We Manage 

The U.S. Wildland Fire Service is responsible for wildfire response, risk mitigation and burned area rehabilitation across more than 500 million acres of Interior-administered and tribal lands. These lands include: 

• National parks and historic and cultural sites managed by the National Park Service.
• National wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
• Tribal lands and lands held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Interior-managed lands span diverse ecosystems across the United States—from grasslands and rangelands to forests, deserts and tundra—and are home to critical wildlife habitat, cultural and historical resources, recreational opportunities and communities that depend on healthy, resilient landscapes. 

These lands reflect the nation’s social, economic and natural diversity. They support residential communities and infrastructure. They provide abundant recreation, hunting, and fishing opportunities for millions of Americans each year. Interior manages large areas that are used for livestock grazing and ranching. These lands are also the ancestral homelands of American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Interior manages these lands to protect the spiritual and cultural interests of federally-recognized tribes according to treaty obligations.  

Wildfires are the most consequential change agent on these lands. Through close coordination with the USDA Forest Service, we contribute to a comprehensive federal wildland fire management approach that protects communities and natural resources nationwide. 

How We Are Organized 

The U.S. Wildland Fire Service is a service within the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is led by a Director appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. 

The service maintains offices in Washington, DC and Boise, Idaho. It employs wildland fire personnel who are stationed across the Bureau of Land Management public lands, National Park System lands, National Wildlife Refuge System lands and tribal lands. 

U.S. Wildland Fire Service personnel coordinate closely across the interagency wildland fire community to respond to wildfires, reduce wildfire risk across jurisdictional boundaries and helped burned areas recover.