A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment

Western Governor's Association Implementation Plan

On December 7, 2006 , the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) released an updated Implementation Plan for the 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy. The Comprehensive Strategy is one of the key elements of the National Fire Plan. It emphasizes the importance of a collaborative approach to wildland fire management and focuses specifically on restoring fire-adapted ecosystems and promoting community assistance. It was released in 2001, and was crafted by a vast group of stakeholders, including The Wilderness Society. It was developed in response to Congressional direction in the FY 2001 Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act requiring federal land management agencies to work collaboratively with states and local governments to develop a long-term strategy to address wildland fire. A companion piece to the Strategy, the Implementation Plan was finalized in 2002 to offer a framework for assessing progress toward fire management goals. Recognizing that effective management depends on adaptation, the Implementation Plan envisioned its own review and modification over time.

The new Implementation Plan sets forth desired outcomes, performance measures, and responsibilities for the Strategy’s four goals include:

improving fire prevention and suppression,
reducing hazardous fuels,
restoring ecosystems, and
promoting community assistance.

This updated Implementation Plan emphasizes a landscape-level vision for restoring fire-adapted ecosystems, improving collaboration, and the importance of using fire as a management tool, as well as information sharing and monitoring to improve transparency and a long-term commitment to maintaining the essential resources for implementation. “The revised Implementation Plan reaffirms the commitment to collaboration on the part of all stakeholders and establishes important new steps toward the restoration of fire to fire-adapted ecosystems,” says Greg Aplet, a senior forest ecologist at The Wilderness Society and a member of the group that helped to draft the updated Implementation Plan.