Everyone in Forest Service leadership, including me, heard you loud and clear on last week’s all-employee call, so I wanted to provide you with an update on progress we’re making on implementing the National Prescribed Fire Program Review.

In early September, Chief Moore released the program review and conditionally lifted the prescribed fire pause. I’m happy to report that regional leadership across the country has certified most field units to resume prescribed burning when conditions are favorable. 

In addition, we have established a new Prescribed Fire Coordinating and Advisory Team, comprised of agency experts in fire management and operations, contracting, budget and communication, which is hard at work implementing a suite of near-term recommendations identified in the review report. I want to thank these team members for tackling this set of complex issues and working to develop solutions that will provide a starting point for continuous improvement in how we plan and conduct prescribed burns. 

This temporary team is working under tight timelines to develop a draft national strategic plan for prescribed fire implementation, a Western Prescribed Fire Training curriculum and a standardized approach for declared wildfire reviews, as well as find new ways to apply Potential Operational Delineations.

The strategic plan will include recommendations for an overarching organization to supplement and prioritize prescribed fire implementation for the agency’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy’s initial landscape investments. It also will consider a scalable management organization to provide support to increase the pace and scale of prescribed fire nationwide dedicated to the highest priority hazardous fuels reduction work, concentrating on the 10 priority landscapes as centers for innovation. 

The Western Prescribed Fire Training curriculum will expand the successes of the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center in Tallahassee, Florida. Ultimately, this expansion will enhance our collaboration with partners to build capacity and expand prescribed burning on National Forest System lands in the West. 

Building on the success of PODS for wildfire response, we are working to expand their use as a tool for vegetative and fuels management planning. Finally, a concerted effort soon will be underway to establish a standardized approach for declared wildfire reviews, including improved tracking of findings and recommendations for continuous learning. The results of this work should be available in the spring. 

Again, I want to thank all the employees who are involved in this concerted effort, as well as everyone in the field who moved quickly to get our prescribed fire program up and running again. I look forward to providing another update when we roll out a formal set of accomplishments early next year.

Watch Inside the Forest Service for additional updates related to the December call, including today's update on housing from Deputy Chief Tony Dixon.

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