Wildland Fire Partnership Stories

Successful management of wildland fire is a team effort. National Park Service (NPS) staff in Alaska have formed a unique partnership with the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (AFS), which has helped to turn challenges into opportunities, and increased operational efficiency in utilization of helicopters for fire suppression. This partnership has benefited not only Alaska, but also the wildland firefighting effort in several western states.

Everglades National Park fire and resource management staff attended the 2nd International Congress for Coastal Protected Areas with Tree Island Ecosystems in Campeche, Mexico, in September 2014. The conference, held at Los Petenes Biosphere Reserve, focused on fire-prone, wetland ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. This international collaboration reflects NPS interest in maintaining and restoring resilient landscapes.

At 12:30 pm on Sunday, June 30, 2024, the Riley Fire was reported on Denali National Park and Preserve lands about one mile north of the park entrance, in the Nenana River canyon. Due to the extremely dry conditions, the fire grew quickly. Thanks to assistance from both local and out of state partners, fire protection agencies, and planning in advance for this type of scenario, the park was back to regular operations only 11 days after ignition.

On April 22, 2016, Homestead National Historical Park conducted the first prescribed fire in the National Park Service (NPS) using a small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) for interior ignition. Twenty six acres of restored tallgrass prairie were successfully burned according to management objectives through the collaborative efforts of the Department of Interior National Park Service and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).

In mid-October 2022, a first-entry prescribed fire for prairie restoration at the old Richfield Coliseum site in Cuyahoga Valley National Park brought together partners from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the National Park Service (NPS), and local community. NPS staff came from New River Gorge National Park and the NPS Northeast Region joining a USFWS crew from New Jersey and the Richfield, Ohio fire department.

South Florida parks have partnered with the South Florida Natural Resources Center to build a burn prioritization model as a decision-support tool for Everglades National Park. The model includes criteria for plant conservation, endangered species protection, human life and safety, cultural, archeological, and recreational resources protection, and invasive plant control. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used to integrate multiple factors affecting fire management.

In November 2022, over two separate weekends, the National Park Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management came together for two large-scale in-person hiring events in Redding, CA and Northridge, CA.

South Florida Fire and Aviation is building mutually beneficial coalitions with agencies from around the country to help train and utilize required skillsets to meet the fire management workloads. The strategy is to utilize proactive prescribed fire to treat the ecosystem on a landscape level under moderate conditions, while simultaneously training the future generation of wildland firefighters.

Tom's Wilson's journey into the Veteran Fire Corps (VFC) began online. When he saw a VFC opportunity with the National Park Service (NPS), he was reminded of his childhood exploring the national parks system with his family and filling out the NPS passport book. Excited to combine his love of the outdoors with his passion for service, he applied for the position and was accepted into Interior Region 1’s inaugural VFC program.

In late August 2023, the NPS Alaska Eastern Area Helicopter, with staffing from NPS Eastern Area, NPS Western Area, and BLM Alaska Fire Service, mobilized to the Lower 48 to support wildfires in NPS Pacific West Region. This mobilization was the first time ever the NPS Alaska Region sent an NPS Exclusive Use Fire Helicopter with crew to assist with large fire support in the Lower 48.