News Release

National Park Service Director Chuck Sams visits National Interagency Fire Center highlighting interagency cooperation and collaboration

NPS aircraft specialist, Kristin Swoboda, briefs director, Chuck Sams, about National Park Service aircraft at the National Interagency Fire Center.

C BOEHLE

News Release Date: April 18, 2022

Contact: Tina Boehle, 208-387-5875

WASHINGTON – National Park Service (NPS) Director Chuck Sams visited the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho today as part of a cross country tour during National Park Week. Sams visited NIFC as firefighters are already contending with wildfires including one at Bents Old Fort National Historic Site last week, which came within feet of reaching the historic fort. Today’s visit to NIFC coincides with National Park Week’s “sPark Collaboration” day, which is fitting as NIFC is the model looked to around the world of interagency cooperation and collaboration between federal firefighting agencies.

Sams met with NPS fire and aviation employees, as well as wildland fire leadership from across the departments of the Interior and Agriculture. He was briefed on wildland fire preparedness and response and investments in the firefighting workforce that will be bolstered by historic investments through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Interior Department recently released a roadmap for this historic investment that outlines the Department’s monitoring, maintenance, and treatment strategy to address wildfire risk, better serve communities, and improve conditions on all types of lands where wildfires can occur. The visit follows the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture signing a joint memo setting direction and strategic priorities for service Directors as their bureaus work to reduce wildfire risk, restore ecosystems, engage in post-fire recovery, and make communities more resilient to fire – especially those in rural, Tribal, and historically underserved communities.

Sams began his tour of the NIFC campus at the National Interagency Coordination Center where national resources like Type 1 incident management teams, hotshot crews, and large airtankers are dispatched on wildland fires.

On the tarmac shared with the Boise airport, he toured NPS fleet aircraft. The NPS aviation program has the most diverse range of aviation missions of any bureau within the Department of the Interior supporting fire management, law enforcement, search and rescue, natural resource management, backcountry patrol, and transport of personnel and cargo.

During the tour, he was briefed on the NPS structural fire program which has the challenge and responsibility to protect thousands of structures, many of which are historic, and the largest system of museum collections in the world holding more than 100 million objects, artifacts, and archives.

He also was briefed about the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center, which is celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year. After the 1994 fire season that saw 34 firefighters killed in the line of duty, fire leaders acknowledged learning is vital to thriving in high-risk environments. The Center was established in 2002 to be the nucleus of organizational learning and has become an integral part of the interagency fire program. The Center helps us recognize that risk cannot always be eliminated and learning reviews, lesson sharing, and the study of unintended outcomes without the fear of punitive action is vital in every organization.

Sams ended his tour at NIFC with a moment of silence at the Wildland Firefighters Monument, for firefighters who have died in the line of duty.