WILDLAND FIRE

MANAGEMENT

Reducing the Threat of

Wildland Fires Requires

Sustained and

Coordinated Effort

Statement of Barry T. Hill

Director, Natural Resources and Environment

United States General Accounting Office

GAO Testimony

Before the Subcommittee on Department Operations,

Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry, Committee on

Agriculture, House of Representatives

For Release on Delivery

Expected at 2:00 p.m., EDT

Thursday, June 13, 2002

GAO-02-843T
1 GAO-02-843T Wildland Fire Management

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss wildland fires and our work to

identify actions necessary to improve our nation’s response to this significant threat. The

most extensive and serious problem related to the health of forested lands—particularly

in the interior West—is the over accumulation of vegetation, which is causing an

increasing number of large, intense, uncontrollable, and destructive wildfires. In 1999,

the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service estimated that 39 million acres of

national forested lands in the interior West were at high risk of catastrophic wildfire.

This figure later grew to over 125 million acres as the Department of the Interior

agencies and states identified additional land that they considered to be high risk. To a

large degree, these forest health problems contributed to the 2000 wildfires—which were

some of the worst in the last 50 years. The policy response to these problems was the

development of the National Fire Plan—a long-term multibillion dollar effort to address

the wildland fires threats we are now facing. Currently, wildland fires are blazing in 10

states, with numerous fires in Colorado, and the potential exists for another catastrophic

wildfire season. Already, the number of acres burnt this year totals about 1.4 million—

which is almost 200,000 more acres than were burned by this time in 2000.

Mr. Chairman, before proceeding with the specifics of my testimony today, I think it is

important to set the proper tone and context for the points we will be making. As we sit

here with suburban Denver in flames and citizens there and in other parts of the country

in harm’s way as the result of on-going wildland fires, it is tempting and understandable

to seek immediate short-term solutions to these immediate dangers. However, the

problems at hand took decades to develop; unfortunately there are no quick fixes.

Solving these problems will require a long-term commitment and sustained effort.

Since 1997, we have issued a series of reports that discuss the extent and seriousness of

the wildland fire problem; federal efforts to prepare for, mitigate, and suppress wildfire

threats and risks; and actions needed to improve the effectiveness of these efforts. We

are here today to highlight what our work has shown.
2 GAO-02-843T Wildland Fire Management

In summary, our work on wildland fire has stressed the need for three things: (1) a

cohesive strategy to address growing threats to national forest resources and nearby

communities from catastrophic wildfires, (2) clearly defined and effective leadership to

carry out that strategy in a coordinated manner; and (3) accountability to ensure that

progress is being made toward accomplishing the goals of the National Fire Plan. Two

years ago, the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior began developing

strategies to address these problems, and recently established a leadership entity—the

Wildland Fire Leadership Council—that is intended to respond to the need for greater

interagency coordination. Whether the strategy and the council will serve as the

framework and mechanism to effectively deal with the threat of catastrophic wildland

fire remains to be seen and will depend upon how well the National Fire Plan is

implemented. To determine the effectiveness of this implementation effort, we continue

to believe that a sound performance accountability framework is needed; one that

provides for specific performance measures and data that can be used to assess

implementation progress and problems.

Need for a More Cohesive Strategy to Address Growing Threats

In April 1999, we reported that the Forest Service had begun, during the 1990s, to

address the unintended consequences of its decades-old policy of putting out naturally

occurring wildfires, which had weakened the health of national forests.1

 It announced its

goal to improve forest health and the resulting consequences of uncontrollable,

catastrophic wildfires on national forests by the end of fiscal year 2015. To accomplish

this goal, it (1) initiated a program to monitor forest health; (2) refocused its wildland

fire management program to increase the number of acres on which it reduces the

accumulated vegetation that forms excessive fuel; and (3) restructured its budget to

better ensure that funds are available for reducing these fuels. However, we noted that it

lacked much needed data to accurately assess risks and plan fuel reduction activities.

For example, the Forest Service had not sufficiently mapped the extent and locations of

 1

U.S. General Accounting Office, Western National Forests: A Cohesive Strategy is Needed to Address

Catastrophic Wildfire Threats, GAO/RCED-99-65 (Washington, D.C., Apr. 2, 1999).
3 GAO-02-843T Wildland Fire Management

hazardous conditions, and the agency said that, even when the initial mapping was

completed, the data would not be precise enough to provide a basis for identifying,

setting priorities for, and designing site-specific projects. Without these data, it is

uncertain whether the Forest Service could meet its goal of improving forest health by

the end of fiscal year 2015. We therefore recommended that the Secretary of Agriculture

direct the Chief of the Forest Service to develop a comprehensive strategy to acquire the

needed data.

In response to our report, the Forest Service developed a strategy to restore and

maintain ecosystem health for priority areas across the interior West. The priorities it

identified for maintaining ecosystem health included (1) wildland-urban interface areas

where wildland fuels are adjacent to homes and communities, (2) readily accessible

municipal watersheds that could be affected by wildland fire effects, (3) threatened and

endangered species habitat, and (4) areas that are currently at low risk and that should

be maintained as low risk. As part of that strategy, the Forest Service also identified

strategic actions for immediate resolution, including the development of more precise

mapping data for identifying and setting priorities for wildland fuel risks, and developing

regional implementation plans that integrate status and risk information.

Following the issuance of our report, the large-scale wildfires of 2000 made it apparent

that the problems we identified on Forest Service lands also existed on many lands

managed by the Department of the Interior, as well as on many state and privately owned

lands across the nation. As a consequence, the Forest Service and the Department of the

Interior have worked with states and other parties to develop common comprehensive

strategies. These strategies—collectively termed the National Fire Plan—address not

only the need to reduce fuels, but also the need for more effective approaches for

wildland fire preparedness. The Congress, in turn, has substantially increased funding for

these two specific activities—by up to $2.5 billion over the fiscal year 2001 and 2002 time

period.
4 GAO-02-843T Wildland Fire Management

Need for Clearly Defined and Effective Leadership

In January and in March 2002, we reported that, over a year after the Congress

substantially increased funds to reduce hazardous fuels and for wildland fire

preparedness, the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior have not established

clearly defined and effective leadership for addressing these problems and implementing

the National Fire Plan.2 ,3 With respect to reducing hazardous fuels accumulations, we

noted that the departments did not use the same method for identifying and setting

priorities for wildland-urban interface communities at high risk for wildland fire. The

departments did not coordinate these activities, but instead did them separately. As a

result, there was no assurance that the increased funding appropriated by the Congress

for reducing hazardous forest fuel build-ups was being allocated to the most seriously

threatened communities. Similarly, with respect to preparedness, we found the

departments did not use the same models for identifying fire-fighting equipment or

personnel needs, or for accounting for personnel costs. As a result of this lack of

coordination, there was no assurance that the increased funding appropriated by the

Congress for suppressing fires when they do occur was being allocated in a manner that

provides the necessary capacity to respond where it is most needed.

We recommended that the Congress consider directing the Secretaries of Agriculture and

of the Interior to establish an interagency national council recommended by the National

Academy of Public Administration.4

 In April of this year, the Secretaries of Agriculture

and of the Interior established a Wildland Fire Leadership Council composed of the

Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment; the Chief of

 2

U.S. General Accounting Office, Severe Wildland Fires: Leadership and Accountability Needed to Reduce

Risks to Communities and Resources, GAO-02-259 (Washington, D.C., Jan. 31, 2002).

3

U.S. General Accounting Office, Wildland Fire Management: Improved Planning Will Help Agencies

Better Identify Fire-Fighting Preparedness Needs, GAO-02-158 (Washington, D.C., Mar. 29, 2002).

4

Managing Wildland Fire: Enhancing Capacity to Implement the Federal Interagency Policy. A Report

by a Panel of the National Academy of Public Administration for the United States Department of Interior

(Dec. 2001).
5 GAO-02-843T Wildland Fire Management

the Forest Service; Directors of the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service,

and Fish and Wildlife Service; the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs; and the Chief of

the Staff to the Secretary of the Interior. The council is to work to achieve consistent and

coordinated efforts, through its members, to implement the National Fire Plan. It is too

early to determine whether this approach to leadership will succeed in overcoming the

coordination problems we identified. However, we note that the agreement between the

departments of Agriculture and the Interior calls for them to manage their own activities

and resources in pursuing objectives and that disagreements between the departments

are to be resolved by elevating any disagreements separately within each department

rather than to a single decisionmaker. Accordingly, there appears to be no single

decision-making mechanism for resolving disputes between the departments. This

approach could potentially allow for a continued separate, and not necessarily

coordinated, effort.

Need for Improved Accountability for Managing Wildland Fire

In January and March 2002, we also reported that the Forest Service and the Department

of the Interior have not established performance measures to account for the

departments’ accomplishments in such areas as hazardous fuels reduction and wildland

fire preparedness. Concerning hazardous fuels reduction, we pointed out that a sound

performance measurement framework is needed to ensure that funds appropriated to

reduce hazardous fuels are spent in an efficient, effective, and timely manner. Because

the departments have been unable to develop performance measures for their hazardous

fuels reduction efforts, and because the implementation of a performance accountability

framework is also fragmented, (1) high-risk communities have not been identified and

numbered in order of priority, (2) multiple strategies have been developed with different

goals and objectives, (3) quantifiable indicators of performance have not been developed

to measure progress in reducing risks, and (4) annual plans and reports that have been

developed do not describe what will be accomplished with appropriated funds.
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We recommended that the Secretaries of the Interior and of Agriculture jointly direct the

heads of the departments to collect the accurate, complete, and comparable data needed

to (1) better identify and set priorities for wildland-urban interface communities that are

at high risk from wildland fire on federal lands; (2) determine if changes are needed to

expedite the project-planning process; and (3) measure the effectiveness of efforts to

dispose of the large amount of brush, small trees, and other vegetation that must be

removed to reduce the risk of severe wildland fire. The departments are now in the

process of developing performance measures, such as the number of acres treated that

are in the wildland-urban interface, and are in the process of determining whether the

data are available that could support its performance measurement needs.

With regard to our report on wildland fire preparedness, we noted that the departments

have not yet identified the results they expect to achieve with the additional resources

they received under the National Fire Plan. It therefore will be difficult to determine the

extent to which these additional personnel, and the additional equipment that has been

purchased, have increased the level of fire-fighting preparedness. We recommended that

the departments develop performance measures identifying the results to be achieved

with the personnel and equipment obtained with the additional funding provided under

the National Fire Plan. While the departments report that they have developed specific

performance measures for wildland fire preparedness, more work needs to be done. For

example, the departments still need to develop common definitions of outputs and

measures, validate new performance measures with baseline data, and refine

information collection systems to ensure the right data are collected to measure results.

The departments expect to have these new performance measures fully implemented in

time for use in the formulation of the fiscal year 2004 budget.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the difficult task of effectively addressing wildland fire—a

problem that has taken decades to develop—will require a sustained and coordinated

effort to address. As our reports point out, a single, unified approach is necessary—not

each department separately planning for and addressing wildland fire issues. To this end

and to the departments’ credit, they have developed a cohesive strategy to address the
7 GAO-02-843T Wildland Fire Management

problem and put in place an entity to provide for more clearly defined leadership.

However, to reduce the number and size of catastrophic destructive fires—such as those

currently occurring in Colorado and other western states—in the long term will depend,

to a large degree, on how effective the federal government is in implementing this

strategy and approach.

- - - - -

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared remarks. I will be happy to answer any

question that you or the other Members of the Subcommittee may have.

Contacts and Acknowledgement

For future contacts regarding this statement, please contact me on (202) 512-3841.

Individuals making key contributions to this testimony were Paul Bollea, Cliff Fowler,

Chester Janik, Chester Joy, and Marcia McWreath.

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