**STATEMENT OF**

**MARK REY**

**UNDER SECRETARY FOR NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT**

**UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE**

**AND**

**C. STEPHEN ALLRED**

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR LAND AND MINERALS MANAGEMENT**

**U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR**

**BEFORE**

**SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES**

**CONCERNING**

**FIRE PREPAREDNESS OF FEDERAL LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCIES FOR THE 2007
WILDFIRE SEASON AND**

**RECENT REPORTS ON THE AGENCIES' EFFORTS TO CONTAIN THE COSTS OF
WILDFIRE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES**

**June 26, 2007**

**INTRODUCTION**

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity
to testify on wildland fire preparedness for the 2007 fire season.  
Since the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture
work closely together in fire management, the two Departments are
providing a joint statement. 

**WEATHER, WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE, AND WOOD**

Multiple factors contribute to wildland fire.  These factors include
weather, fuel type, terrain, location with respect to the wildland urban
interface (WUI), and other highly valued landscapes, and managerial
decisions made before and during fire incidents.  In addition, changing
temperatures and prolonged drought across many portions of the West and
Southeast, an expansion of the WUI and an increase in the number of
people living in the WUI, continued accumulation of wood fiber, and
substantial increases in highly flammable invasive species, such as
cheatgrass, are converging to increase the risk of catastrophic loss
from wildland fires.   In combination, these trends present continuing
challenges in our efforts to decrease the number and cost of fire
incidents.

 

Over the last few years, we have reported regularly to Congress on these
challenges.  The 2005 Quadrennial Fire and Fuels Review by DOI and USDA
examined the growth of the WUI, the area where structures and other
human developments meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland.  The
review found that 8.4 million new homes were added to the WUI in the
1990s, representing 60 percent of the new homes constructed in the
United States.  The rate of growth is triple the rate of construction
outside of the WUI.  Also, the recent Audit Report by the Office of
Inspector General "Forest Service Large Fire Suppression Costs" found
that the majority of Forest Service large fire suppression costs are
directly linked to protecting property in the WUI. These reviews
illustrate the challenge of addressing wildland fire in land areas such
as locations in the WUI where fire suppression is inherently more
expensive.

 

Another challenge is addressing the accumulation of flammable biomass on
our public lands, a major cause of fire risk.  The Departments have
worked aggressively to reduce the amount of hazardous fuels on Federal
lands and restore the health of our public forests and rangelands,
utilizing the authorities provided under the President's Healthy Forests
Initiative and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act to expedite action. 
In 2006, more than half of the total acres treated were inside the WUI. 
We will maintain this emphasis with a goal to treat approximately 2
million acres in high-risk wildland urban interface areas through the
hazardous fuels reduction program in 2007.

 

**2006 FIRE SEASON**

Fire activity in 2006 was above normal by nearly every standard. The
transition from the end of the 2005 fire season to the beginning of the
2006 fire season was uncharacteristic in that it lacked the typical
slowdown during the winter months. Extremely low humidity, persistent
drought conditions and winds contributed to fire ignitions and rapid
spreads from November 2005 through April 2006 in Texas and Oklahoma as
well as Colorado, Missouri and New Mexico.

2006 included the second warmest summer on record nationally and the
hottest on record from January through August. The summer saw an
unprecedented quantity of acreage burned, with 14 fires topping 100,000
acres in size, in Washington, Nevada, California, Montana, Oregon,
Texas, Idaho and Alaska with five located on National Forests, seven in
Bureau of Land Management Districts, and two in State jurisdictions.
Across all jurisdictions, wildland fires totaled more than 96,000
incidents burning nearly 10 million acres.

Last year, the U.S. Forest Service spent over \$1.5 billion on all fire
suppression and over \$400 million on 20 of the largest fires while DOI
spent approximately \$424 million on all fire suppression. We are
pleased, that even in the face of such a long and severe fire year; we
achieved nearly 97 percent initial attack success on all fires, a rate
comparable to less severe years. We will strive to maintain that level.
Although the 2006 fire season had an unprecedented number of fire starts
in a single day (548), an extraordinary number of lightning caused fires
(over 14,000), and the most number of large fires at one time (59 fires
over 500 acres being managed in 9 geographic areas), it also resulted in
significantly fewer dwellings and other structures destroyed - 750 homes
lost in 2006 (240 homes during the March fires in Texas and Oklahoma)
compared with 835 homes lost in 2002 and over 4500 homes lost in 2003.

**2007 WILDLAND FIRE SEASON OUTLOOK**

Most of the eastern, central and northwestern U.S. has a normal outlook
for significant wildland fire in potential 2007. A portion of the
Southwest is predicted to have a below-normal wildland fire season. This
area includes northeastern New Mexico, and small parts of southeastern
Colorado, western Oklahoma, and northern Texas, where it borders New
Mexico. Wildland fire potential is expected to be higher than normal
across much of the Southwest, California, portions of the Great Basin,
the Northern Rockies, a small portion of the Northwest, Alaska, and the
Southeast. The amount of precipitation many areas receive in the early
summer periods is an important factor in the severity of the fire
season.

The critical conditions influencing the 2007 wildland fire outlook are:

-   Drought conditions are expanding and intensifying across large
    portions of the West and Southeast, and drought relief is not
    expected in these areas through the season.

-   Low snow pack, warmer-than-normal forecast temperatures, and early
    snow melt over most of the West will likely dry out timber fuels and
    could cause an early onset of fire season in some areas.

-   Abundant new and carry over fine fuels are expected to green-up and
    cure early, leading to an active and prolonged grassland fire
    season.

-   Another hotter than normal summer is projected for the West.
    Depending on heat levels and timing of higher temperatures, higher
    elevation fuels could dry quickly and be susceptible to ignitions.

The fire season is already producing incidents that are evidence of our
concern about the 2007 fire season. Drought and high temperatures have
resulted in the burning of over 1.1 million acres in the Southern Area,
including the Big Turnaround, Sweat Farm Road, Bugaboo Scrub and Florida
Bugaboo fire complex in Northern Florida and Southeastern Georgia. More
than 161,000 acres have burned in the Eastern Area, including the Ham
Lake fire in Northern Minnesota and in Canada which burned for over
eighteen days, due to drought conditions and high winds.

**WILDLAND FIRE PREPAREDNESS**

To prepare for these natural conditions anticipated in the 2007 Fire
Season, USDA and DOI are working to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of our firefighting resources. New management efforts are
allowing for increased mobility of firefighting forces and aviation
assets.

***Firefighting Forces***

For the 2007 fire season, we have secured firefighting forces --
firefighters, equipment, and aircraft -- comparable to those available
in 2006.  As has already been demonstrated during the fires in the
Southeast, we leverage our firefighting ability by shifting our
firefighters and equipment as the fire season progresses.  Fire managers
assign local, regional, and national firefighting personnel and
equipment based on anticipated fire starts, actual fire occurrence, fire
spread, and severity with the help of information from Predictive
Services. 

More than 18,000 firefighters will be available, including permanent and
seasonal Federal and State employees, crews from Tribal and local
governments, contract crews, and emergency/temporary hires. This figure
includes 92 highly-trained Hotshot firefighting crews and about 400
smokejumpers nationwide.  There are 17 Type 1 national interagency
incident management teams (the most experienced and skilled teams)
available for complex fires or incidents.  Thirty-eight Type 2 incident
management teams are available for geographical or national incidents. 

Initial attack of a fire is handled by the closest available local
resource regardless of agency jurisdiction. Generally this means that
the agency with management jurisdiction and protection responsibility
for the location of the fire, such as a national forest, Tribal lands,
Bureau of Land Management unit, wildlife refuge, or national park, will
handle initial attack. Often, our partners at the local community or
county level are the first to respond.

Two interagency National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) teams
were staffed in 2006, and are operational with two seven-member
full-time Type I Incident Management Teams that are ready to respond to
wildland fire incidents. The teams are headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia
and Boise, Idaho and will help wildland fire agencies improve future
fire management programs. Currently, the Atlanta NIMO team is assisting
the Florida State incident management team on the Florida Bugaboo fire.
The Boise NIMO team recently concluded nearly 40 days of assisting FEMA
in its tornado disaster response operation in Greensburg, Kansas. Both
teams will be called to assist in wildland fire incidents this season,
and when they are not on assignments, they will implement the NIMO
Implementation Plan, which calls for improvements in wildland fire
program management in the areas of training, fuels management, cost
containment, and leadership development, among others.

The National Interagency Coordination Center, located at the National
Interagency Fire Center in Boise, coordinates critical firefighting
needs throughout the nation.  In the event of multiple, simultaneous
fires, firefighting resources are prioritized and allocated by the
National Multi-Agency Coordinating group, composed of national fire
directors headquartered at NIFC.  Prioritization ensures firefighting
forces are positioned where they are needed most.  Fire managers
dispatch and track personnel, equipment, aircraft, vehicles, and
supplies through an integrated national system.  If conditions become
extreme, assistance from the Department of Defense is available under
our standing agreements, as well as firefighting forces from Canada,
Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand using established agreements and
protocols.  

***Aviation***

The wildland firefighting agencies continue to employ a mix of fixed and
rotor wing aircraft. Key components of our 2007 aviation assets include
16 civilian large air tankers on federal contracts, along with 41 Type 1
and Type 2, or heavy and medium, helicopters on national use
exclusive-use contracts; and 84 Type 2 and 3 helicopters on local or
regional contracts. Additionally, there are nearly 300 call-when-needed
Type 1, 2 and 3 helicopters available for fire management support as
conditions and activity dictate.

Although both the large and single-engine air tanker programs have
evolved in recent years, we are confident that we have appropriate and
cost-effective assets in place or available to respond to the air
support needs in the field. Twenty three Single Engine Air Tankers
(SEATs) will be on exclusive-use contracts for the 2007 fire season and
about 80 available on a call-when-needed basis. Some states and local
areas also contract their own SEATs.

In addition, there will be two water-scooper airtankers on exclusive-use
contracts and an additional one available on a call-when-needed basis
for the 2007 fire season. Additional water-scooper aircraft will be
available through agreements with state and county firefighting
agencies. As in the past, military C-130 aircraft equipped with Modular
Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) will be available to supplement
our large air tanker fleet as needed. Six MAFFS are available this year.

**WILDLAND FIRE SAFETY**

The complexity of the wildland fire management environment places many
expectations upon our wildland firefighters. Above all else, human
safety is our first priority. The Forest Service has adopted a
foundational doctrine - principles guiding operations of fire
suppression activities and actions. Currently, the Forest Service and
the DOI are reviewing guidance for dealing with the parts of fire
suppression that rely on interpretation, judgment, and agility.

DOI agencies and the Forest Service continue to require annual fire line
safety refresher courses for all firefighting personnel. Additionally,
the "6 Minutes for Safety," an interagency safety initiative, is issued
daily during fire season and alerts firefighters to high-risk
situations. It is distributed throughout the fire community.

Within the Incident Command System, the agency is reevaluating training
and soliciting support from other wildland fire agencies to streamline
training through a competency based system. This will provide the
knowledge and skills necessary to continue to build capacity quickly
while upholding a strong standard of accountability. Over the past few
years the wildland fire agencies have redirected the focus of training
to provide a series of fire leadership courses which has been
incorporated in the standard training curriculum, as well as long--range
development and planning for fire personnel within the agency.

**MITIGATING WILDLAND FIRE RISK TO COMMUNITIES AND THE IMPACTS OF FIRE
ON THE ENVIRONMENT**

We have dangerous fire and fuels conditions in areas in the United
States and the situation is becoming increasingly complex. However, we
now treat more fuels than ever, and we collaborate with our local, state
and tribal partners more than ever before. Our focused effort to remove
accumulation of hazardous fuels in our forests and grasslands is having
a positive effect on the land and is helping to reduce wildland fire
risk to communities.

 

Some of our specific accomplishments in reducing hazardous fuels
include:  

-   Despite an unprecedented wildfire suppression workload, the Forest
    Service and DOI improved fuel conditions and ecosystem health on
    more than 4 million acres of land in 2006, of which 2.6 million
    acres were treated through hazardous fuels reduction programs and
    1.4 million acres of land restoration accomplished through other
    land management activities.

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-   The Federal land management agencies project that they will have
    treated nearly 25 million acres from FY 2000 through 2007, including
    approximately 20 million acres treated through the hazardous fuels
    reduction programs and about 5 million acres of landscape
    restoration accomplished through other land management activities.

-   In 2006, the Administration treated many overstocked Federal
    forests. Hazardous fuels treatments resulted in qualitative
    improvements of at least 994,000 acres in fire regimes classes 1, 2,
    or 3 that moved to a better condition class. In addition, the
    Administration has begun measuring the percentage of total National
    Forest System land for which fire risk is reduced through movement
    to a better condition. The Administration is continuing to work on
    metrics for forest health changes that will help demonstrate the
    outcomes of projects that remove fuels.

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-   USDA and DOI, in collaboration with our non-federal partners,
    continue to increase the community protection emphasis of the
    hazardous fuels program. Community Wildfire Protection Plans are
    essential for localities to reduce risk and set priorities. Over
    1100 CWPPs covering 3,000 communities have been completed nationally
    and an additional 450 plans are progressing toward completion.

-   The LANDFIRE project has now been completed for the western third of
    the mainland United States. The data are being used in setting
    hazardous fuel treatment priorities by local field units and
    regionally, and are used in managing large, long duration wildfires
    burning across landscapes. USDA and DOI are also testing methods of
    modeling fire risk with LANDFIRE data to help better inform
    hazardous fuel treatment prioritization.

-   USDA and DOI are developing methods for effectively allocating fuels
    reduction funds and measuring the effectiveness of those treatments
    in terms of community risk reduction. The agencies will identify
    national priorities within the fuels program and focus funding on
    those priorities, develop more effective measures of risk reduction
    through the introduction of systematic risk analysis tools for fire
    hazard analysis and fuels treatment implementation, and strengthen
    the project criteria for WUI fuels treatments.

-   The "Implementation Plan" of the "10 Year Comprehensive Strategy"
    was updated and released in December of 2006. The goals and guiding
    principles from the 2001 document are constant, but performance
    measures and implementation tasks have been updated to reflect the
    progress made toward National Fire Plan goals in the past five years
    and build upon our success.

Collaboration among communities and local Forest Service and DOI
agencies' offices has resulted in highly effective and successful
hazardous fuels reduction projects. One example is the New Harmony
(Utah) Community Fire Plan that called for coordinated treatments on
forested lands managed by the State of Utah, the Bureau of Land
Management, Dixie National Forest and individual property owners.
Between 2002 and 2004 the agencies and landowners completed fuel
treatments that reduced fire intensity in the treated areas helping fire
fighters to more safely protect the community during the 2005 Blue
Spring Fire. In another example, the use of Healthy Forests Restoration
Act (HFRA) authorities enabled federal agencies and local communities to
quickly begin clean-up and fuels reduction in the wake of hurricanes
that devastated Gulf Coast communities and surrounding forests in 2005.
The Forest Service and DOI worked closely, using HFRA authorities, to
facilitate the National Forests of Mississippi to successfully remove
over 1.3 million tons of hazardous fuel from over 100,000 acres,
salvaging over 240 million board feet of timber. Nearly 1000 miles of
fuel breaks were constructed and another 500 miles will be completed
this year to protect homes in the WUI.

In this challenging fire season, citizens who live or vacation in
fire-prone areas must take personal responsibility to protect their
individual homes. Valuable information about how to increase their
safety and protect their homes and property is available through the
FIREWISE program. Homeowners can learn how to protect their homes with a
survivable, cleared space and how to build their houses and landscape
their yard with fire resistant materials. Information about the FIREWISE
program can be found at [www.firewise.org](http://www.firewise.org/),
sponsored by a consortium of wildland fire agencies that includes the
Forest Service, the Department of the Interior, the National Fire
Protection Association, and the National Association of State Foresters.

The agencies are working to improve procedures for allocating hazardous
fuels reduction funds by assessing the risks from wildland fires and
determining the benefits of fuels treatment and restoration projects by
priority. By using tools such as the Landfire Rapid Assessment, the
Forest Service will address recommendations contained in relevant
Government Accountability Office and Office of Inspector General to
ensure that the most important and highest priority projects are funded
first. The Forest Service will also undertake other such actions as
necessary to implement the desired outcomes of this plan.

**MANAGING THE COST OF FIGHTING WILDLAND FIRE**

Suppression costs have escalated in recent years, as wildfire seasons
have generally lasted longer and the acreage figures have grown. The
external factors noted earlier in this testimony influence the number
and severity of incidents. While safety is our primary concern, our
Departments do share concerns about the cost of fires and are committed
to doing all we can to contain these costs.

Over the last several years, various studies and assessments dedicated
to fire suppression costs have been conducted by the National Academy of
Public Administration, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council, the
Brookings Institution, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO),
including the report they are releasing today. As a result of the
reviews, more than 300 recommendations have been documented to suggest
approaches to trim the costs of wildland fire suppression. The agencies
have taken these reviews seriously, and the overall awareness and
personal responsibility for cost-containment among the federal fire
agencies has never been more acute.

In 2006, TriData, a Division of System Planning Corporation, under
contract with the Forest Service, completed a review and analysis of 22
past cost containment reports and made recommendations regarding those
which would yield the greatest savings. The Tridata report determined
there were 203 unique recommendations directed at improving wildfire
suppression cost containment. Of those, the report identified 71
recommendations that represented potentially high to extremely high cost
savings if implemented. As of August 2006, we have taken or are in the
process of taking action on 57 of these recommendations. We have not
implemented corrective actions on the remaining recommendations for
various reasons, including that the recommendation involves actions
beyond agency authority, the action must be deferred due to pending
court decisions, or that recommendations were directed at isolated
events. Both the Forest Service and DOI are working on a comprehensive
report on recommendations for large fire cost reviews. We expect that
report to be available later this year.

***Management Efficiencies***

On January 30, 2007 we testified before this Committee on a set of
"management efficiencies." These cost control measures focus on
leadership, operations, aviation and general management practices. Both
agencies are moving forward to implement management efficiencies. As we
stated then, some of these measures will be implemented in 2007, while
others will be implemented over the long-term. An update on the key
items reported in January includes:

1.  **[Policy Transition to Risk-Informed Management]{.underline}**

Appropriate Management Response (AMR) is an important approach for
agencies to use to manage wildland fire. This approach provides a risk
informed, performance-based system for fire protection by managing
wildland fire in relationship to the risk that the incident poses. If a
wildland fire has potential benefits to natural resources and poses a
relatively low risk to impact other valued assets, the fire would
receive a lower intensity suppression effort. Conversely, if a fire
incident is determined to pose high risk to property or community, high
suppression efforts would be applied. The use of this approach has grown
over the last several years and we expect to continue expansion of this
approach in the 2007 fire season. The Forest Service developed a draft
guidebook that presents a coherent strategy to implement this approach.
DOI has reviewed this guidebook, and will work with the Forest Service
to ensure that the final product recognizes there are multiple
strategies for wildland fire fighting, ranging from monitoring to full
suppression, that can be used on a single fire depending on factors such
as fire management and land-use plans in place, values at risk,
cost-containment efforts, and resources available.

2.  **[Forest Service Chief's Principal Representative
    (CPR)]{.underline}**

The Chief's Principal Representative will provide risk sharing and
decision support for Regional Foresters on large fires expected to
exceed \$10 million in cost. The Chief's Principal Representative will
bring a national perspective when conferring with regional line
officers. Regional Foresters will notify the chair of an inter-deputy
group, a decision-making group that includes the Deputy Chief for State
& Private Forestry (chair), Deputy Chief for National Forest System, the
Chief Financial Officer, the Director of Budget, and the Director of
Fire and Aviation Management, when the cost for an individual large fire
is expected to exceed \$10 million. The inter-deputy fire group will
coordinate the appointment and preparation of the Chief's Principal
Representative and support group. The Chief's Principal Representative
will report to the chair of the inter-deputy group.

**3. [Line Officer Certification]{.underline}**

All line officers will meet enhanced qualifications prior to being
designated as the responsible official for an incident. The
certification process has been developed and is designed to improve
decision-making and risk management on large fires. Certification will
be at three levels -- Working; Journeyman; and Expert. In addition, a
mentoring network has been established of experienced line officers to
provide training and share experience to enhance performance and skills.

**4. [National Shared Resources]{.underline}**

National resources such as smoke jumpers, hot shot crews, helicopters
and heavy airtankers are now all being treated as national agency
assets, are managed in a centralized fashion and are moved to areas and
incidents based on Predictive Services and Planning Levels. The goals
are to enhance responsiveness of the assignment of resources and to
eliminate concentration of resources in a geographic area.

**5. [Aviation Resource Cost Management]{.underline}**

A full-time National helicopter coordinator is in place to provide, in
an interagency capacity during fire season, national oversight for the
assignment and positioning of helicopters. Helicopter management is now
centralized as a national resource. The Forest Service has shifted to
more "exclusive use" versus "call when needed" contracts for
helicopters. This will increase preparedness costs initially, but is
expected to greatly reduce large fire suppression costs with potential
savings of tens of millions of dollars per year. The agencies are
pursuing longer term aviation contracts for all aviation resources with
increased performance-based contracting. DOI also is pursuing strategies
to reduce its aviation costs.

**6. [Severity Authorization Limitations]{.underline}**

Efforts will be made to maintain our initial attack success while
reducing the dependence on severity funding. The Forest Service has
placed a cap (\$35 million) and an individual limit on each Region for
severity, and Interior has capped severity funding at \$32 million.
However, funding fire fighters is the first priority. The Forest Service
and DOI agencies will continue to submit a coordinated severity request
so as to not duplicate effort or expense.

7.  **[Fire Suppression Decision Support]{.underline}**

We are committed to continue the investment and expansion of system
technologies such as Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) and
use of the Stratified Cost Index (SCI) to improve strategy selection in
wildfire suppression. The SCI determines average suppression costs based
on fire characteristics, such as fuel types, fire intensity, topography,
region, and values at risk. In a given year, actual expenditures on each
large fire (more than 300 acres) are compared to their anticipated costs
as calculated by the SCI based on factors such as size, fuel type, or
proximity to towns. Fires with high or low expenditures compared to the
average suppression cost for fires with similar characteristics are then
identified for review. Historical data were analyzed to determine the
average cost/acre and cost/fire for categories of similar fires and an
acceptable range of costs around the average. The actual expenditures
are compared to their "expected" costs as calculated by the SCI. This
metric is being applied this season and will be used in fire reviews,
evaluations, planning and reporting.

The Departments are taking the issue of large fire cost containment very
seriously and are actively moving forward to implement these important
changes. The comprehensive list of management efficiencies has been
developed to guide action over the short, intermediate and long-term and
to produce results. The Forest Service and DOI are working together in
collaboration and our staff is committed to action.

***Collaborative Efforts to Meet Community Expectations***

Both the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior realize the
importance of collaboration with State and local fire managers. One
recent example of such a successful collaboration is the approach used
at the wildfire on the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, which has
burned over much of this 400,000-acre swamp. These fires are being
driven by an unprecedented regional drought.

Fire is a natural component of the Okefenokee ecosystem which for
thousands of years has shaped the vegetation communities here. Over 300
fires have been recorded since 1937, burning thousands of acres.

The Refuge and the Greater Okefenokee Landowners Association (GOAL) have
worked closely in recent years to improve coordination of wildfire
response. These ongoing efforts include sharing of firefighting
resources and prescribed burning to reduce hazardous fuels.

Fire managers are coordinating suppression efforts with the Georgia
Forestry Commission, Florida Division of Forestry, U.S. Forest Service
and Greater Okefenokee Association of Landowners (GOAL) representing
industry and private landowners. These partners support the chosen
containment strategy of confining the fire to the swamp as the
appropriate management response.

**RECENT STUDIES**

***Government Accountability Office Draft Report: Wildland Fire
Management: Lack of Clear Goals and Strategy Hinders Federal Agencies'
Efforts to Contain the Costs of Fighting Fires***

In May 2007, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a draft
report entitled, "Wildland Fire Management: Lack of Clear Goals and
Strategy Hinders Federal Agencies' Efforts to Contain the Costs of
Fighting Fires." The findings indicated the agencies had not clearly
defined objectives and policies as a means for reducing the costs of
fighting wildland fires. In general, the agencies disagree with the
characterization of many of the findings in the report and believe that
GAO has not accurately portrayed some of the significant actions the
agencies have taken to address large fire suppression costs and
management efficiencies.

In that response, we articulate our views to the opinions expressed by
GAO and provide facts to clarify some areas where the report could be
improved (our response is attached). As we continue to strive
aggressively to contain the costs of wildland fire suppression, our
primary goal will continue to be the protection of life, property and
resources.

We share the GAO's interest in increasing accountability for cost
containment and have taken many steps forward. We are hopeful that GAO
and this Committee are able to ascertain from the actions that have been
taken and planned, that the agencies indeed have established strategies,
goals and objectives for reducing costs of large wildfire suppression
and improving hazardous fuels reduction. We believe that the 10-Year
Strategy Implementation Plan, Office of Management and Budget PART
Improvement Plan, Forest Service Strategic Plan, and new DOI Strategic
Plan, along with the Management Efficiencies initiatives underway,
demonstrate a commitment to constantly improve performance, efficiency
and accountability.

***Secretary of Agriculture's Independent Panel -- Brookings
Institution***

On May 22, 2007 the Brookings Institution released a report "Towards a
Collaborative Cost Management Strategy -- 2006 U.S. Forest Service Large
Wildfire Cost Review Recommendations." This report is by an independent
panel that assessed agency performance on 20 large fires that burned 1.1
million acres across 17 national forests, five regions and six states
that exceeded \$10 million in cost. The Brookings Institution's Project
Director acted as facilitator of the process and author of the report.
The purpose was to determine if the agency exercised fiscal due
diligence in managing specific incident suppression activities. The
panel found that the Forest Service exercised appropriate and adequate
fiscal diligence in suppressing wildfires in the record breaking 2006
season. The panel report also makes a series of recommendations for
improvement that the agency will begin to act on immediately. The report
is available at the USDA website <http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal>.

**CONCLUSION**

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, we are
prepared for the 2007 fire season.   Where local areas experience severe
fire risk, firefighters, equipment and teams will be assigned.  We have
a long-term and complex fuels and fire situation that will continue to
need to be addressed by communities, tribes, states, and federal
agencies.  We appreciate your continued support and work as we move
forward on these challenges.  We are happy to answer any questions you
might have.

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