National Wildland Fire Service
Our vision for a NWFS
See below for more in-depth briefing paper and proposals.
Since our inception, it has been one of our organizational pillars (Pillar #4) to establish a National Wildland Fire Service (NWFS) to the benefit of the boots on the ground. This new agency would consolidate all wildland fire management responsibilities from the five separate federal land management agencies (US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs) into a single, cohesive agency.
The new agency should be a comprehensive wildland fire management agency directly under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and should be run by experienced wildland fire practitioners and managers. We are optimistic about the discussion this new legislation will generate, but there are few specifics on how it will be implemented. GWF is the organization that can provide those details. We have worked for years behind the scenes developing a framework for a NWFS, and are the ideal subject matter experts for how this legislation should be implemented.
In the interim, we strongly recommend that wildland fire programs are immediately “stove-piped” under the US Forest Service and each DOI agency, removing current line officers from the chain of command and decision-making authority.
GWF National Wildland Fire Service Briefing Paper
See our latest newsletter highlighting NWFS
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