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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: 

Wildland Fire Management: 

Reducing the Threat of Wildland Fires Requires Sustained and 
Coordinated Effort: 

Statement of Barry T. Hill: 
Director, Natural Resources and Environment: 

GAO-02-843T: 

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. 

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.[Footnote 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 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. 

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.[Footnotes 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. 
[Footnote 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 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. 

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 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 Acknowledgment: 

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. 

[End of section] 

Footnotes: 

[1] U.S. General Accounting Office, Western National Forests: A 
Cohesive Strategy is Needed to Address Catastrophic Wildfire Threats, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/RCED-99-65] (Washington, 
D.C., Apr. 2, 1999). 

2U.S. General Accounting Office, Severe Wildland Fires: Leadership and 
Accountability Needed to Reduce
Risks to Communities and Resources, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-02-259] (Washington, D.C., Jan. 31, 
2002).
3U.S. General Accounting Office, Wildland Fire Management: Improved 
Planning Will Help Agencies Better Identify Fire-Fighting Preparedness 
Needs, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/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). 

[End of section]