WASHINGTON, DC – Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Branch is launching the inaugural Forest Service Employees Wildfire Preparedness Challenge. This new, voluntary challenge is an opportunity for all Forest Service employees and their families to increase their awareness of wildfire risk, connect with wildfire mitigation resources, demonstrate employees doing their part to address the wildfire crisis and be eligible to win prizes.

The USDA Forest Service Employee Wildfire Preparedness Challenge SharePoint is the one stop shop for employees to sign up for the challenge, and walk through three simple steps to help raise wildfire awareness and reduce wildfire risks around your homes:

Step 1: Know your wildfire risk.
Step 2: Plan to reduce your wildfire risk.
Step 3: Do the work and celebrate your accomplishments.

Sheryl Page, USDA Forest Service National Community Wildfire Mitigation program manager, works with internal and external partners alike to share resources to decrease the threat of wildfire to homes and communities. “Studies have shown that measures taken at the home, and in the area within 100 feet of it, have a significant impact on minimizing damage and loss. Something as simple as clearing the immediate five-foot zone around the home can assist in making a huge difference in avoiding a catastrophe,” said Page. While the Forest Service works with partners to address the wildfire crisis as an agency, we can also encourage our employees to act at their homes.

The challenge will culminate on national Wildfire Community Preparedness Day - Saturday, May 4, 2024. National Wildfire Community Preparedness Day — commonly called Wildfire Prep Day - is a national, public campaign managed by the National Fire Protection Association – one of the national partners supported by agreements with Fire and Aviation Management. 

As we continue to implement all three tenets of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy as an agency - resilient landscapes, fire adapted communities and safe and effective wildfire response, we have the opportunity and responsibility to acknowledge that “wildfire mitigation around the home is an important element to creating fire adapted communities,” said Assistant Director Clint Cross, Landscapes and Partnerships.