Today, we are releasing “A Strategy to Expand Prescribed Fire Training in the West.” This plan fulfills the Chief’s direction in the “National Prescribed Fire Program Review” to establish a Western Prescribed Fire Training curriculum that expands on the successes of the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center in Florida. The current training program targets prescribed fire practitioners and agency administrators responsible for prescribed fire programs and decision making. Establishing a western prescribed fire training center, PFTC-West, will step up the pace of prescribed fire training-to-qualification in the West, provide trainees with real-time, on-the-ground experience on varying landscapes in different fuel types and terrain, and increase national prescribed fire resource capacity to support our “Wildfire Crisis Strategy.”

To address the increased complexity of planning and completing prescribed fires and meet the goals of our “Wildfire Crisis Strategy,” we must take an all-hands approach to implementing PFTC-West with our employees and our partners. Prescribed fire is one of the most important tools we have to reduce wildfire risks to communities and restore and maintain resilient fire-adapted ecosystems.  

Tribes, partners, communities, nongovernmental organizations and federal, state and local governments are already working with us on PFTC-West. Last year, we held focus group sessions with over 200 people, including past students and field coordinators of prescribed fire training and experts in the field from other agencies and tribal nations. They identified successful practices, skills and techniques that can be transferred into future PFTC-West modules, using both classroom and hands-on prescribed fire activities. Their knowledge and experience will help us build our collective capacity to expand the use of prescribed fire on National Forest System and other lands in the West. We also are working with partners—such as state forestry agencies, tribes and The Nature Conservancy—to set up training landscapes in all western states.  

Some western forests have already piloted the PFTC-West concept. We continue to learn from those projects and improve plans to expand prescribed fire training in the West. By investing in our employees and partners, we are building a stronger network of prescribed fire practitioners and adding more depth to our prescribed fire system.  

Together, we will move toward a future where we coexist with wildfire in the West and across the country.