WASHINGTON, DC — Since the threat of wildfires extends beyond our borders, the wildland fire community reaches beyond them as well. The Forest Service exchanges wildland fire knowledge, expertise, equipment and personnel through international agreements with Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Portugal. Entering these arrangements requires significant interagency and international collaboration.

Recently, new international arrangements between the United States, Canada and Portugal were signed by the respective United States ambassadors and foreign ministers. These arrangements expand the abilities of the Forest Service to work with these international partners on all aspects of wildland fire management.  

Canada
The United States and Canada have a long history of working together to fight wildfires across North America. On June 22, 2023, the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior signed an arrangement with Canada that strengthens the two countries’ long-standing cooperation to combat wildland fires and protect communities. This new agreement comes as Canada faces one of its worst wildfire seasons. The new agreement replaces the previous one that has been in place since 1982.  It was used to exchange resources during 37 of the previous 40 years, including 2020 when over 600 Canadian firefighters mobilized to fires in the United States. So far this year, over 1,200 U.S. firefighters have mobilized to fires in three Canadian provinces. The new arrangement strengthens our long-standing cooperation by allowing us to exchange resources for training and other preparedness activities, research and post-fire activities.

Portugal  
The arrangement with Portugal was signed on April 28, 2023, and will initially be used to enable joint training and research activities that work toward the ability to exchange fire suppression resources in the future. Cooperative activities are already being planned for incident command system training, post-fire recovery training and areas of fire research.

Other international agreements
Other similar arrangements exist between the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico, allowing for the exchange of resources for wildland fire preparedness, training, research, fire suppression and post-fire recovery activities. These agreements allowed the United States to send firefighters and support personnel to Australia to support the Australian Bush Fires in 2020.  Later that same year, 100 firefighters from Mexico mobilized to assist firefighting efforts in the Western United States.  

International arrangements for the exchange of fire management resources are managed through the Forest Service Fire & Aviation Management, All Hazard & International Fire Support Branch, with support from the Department of the Interior Office of Wildland Fire. Each agreement/arrangement has an operating plan, which are managed by Forest Service Fire & Aviation, Operations at the National Interagency Fire Center on behalf of the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group. The National Interagency Coordination Center is the designated coordination entity to request resources and distribute assistance to identified fires in the United States and to mobilize resources to support firefighting activities in our partner countries.

These agreements support our agency’s strategic goals to apply knowledge globally and excel as a high-performing agency. Sharing wildland fire knowledge and resources across borders will help us all better manage wildland fires and protect communities.