California welcomes two wildland fire crews from Saipan

Continuing a long-standing partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Mendocino National Forest is again hosting wildfire crews from Saipan. Crew 36 has provided gap fill for wildfire initial attack in California public lands since 2001. This year, the Mendocino National Forest hosted a second team, CNMI Crew 32, doubling the capacity to provide wildfire protection in the Pacific Southwest Region.

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Through the Forest Service’s Cooperative Fire Program, instructors from the mainland travel to the islands to provide a variety of wildland fire training courses. Graduates of this training are chosen, through a competitive process, to serve as part of the crew each season. When the CNMI crew is ordered to the U.S. to assist with wildfires, instructors may have the opportunity to serve on the crew as a senior firefighter or crew boss.

The 60-day assignment of the two CNMI crews is providing even more crucial aid as U.S. Forest Service Region 5 (Pacific Southwest) is experiencing extreme fire conditions, entering Preparedness Level (PL) 5 earlier than usual. PL5 is a state of on-going major incidents with a sustained operational tempo and lack of available resources to manage wildfire activity. The teams have had assignments to the Borel Fire on the Sequoia National Forest, the Boise Fire on Six Rivers National Forest and the Park Fire on the Lassen National Forest.

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The mission of the Cooperative Fire Program is to work with our Pacific partners to increase capability and capacity in the fire community. The partnership also aids firefighters in garnering essential training needed to provide valuable firefighting skills back home where wildfires and ignition of fire-prone vegetation pose an extreme threat to existing forests and contribute to soil erosion. These partners include Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawaii, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, American Samoa, and the Federated States of Micronesia.