Modernizing Wildland Firefighting to Protect Our Firefighters: Report to the President

Abstract

The linchpin of our country's effort to combat wildfires is a dedicated corps of tens of thousands of state and federal wildland firefighters, who risk their lives to defend over 1.5 billion acres of fireprone land in the United States. Thousands of additional local firefighters are also called upon to protect communities at the wildland urban interface, areas that now collectively house nearly one-third of the U.S. population. PCAST aims to identify opportunities for science and technology to make the job of wildland firefighting safer and more effective. Progress in this arena can complement and amplify actions already taken by the Biden-Harris Administration to strengthen the firefighting workforce via enhancements to job salary and classification levels5 and the 14% increase in wildland fire suppression and prevention funding included in the Fiscal Year (FY) 23 Omnibus Appropriations Law. Our recommendations highlight immediate needs that can be addressed with existing technology as well as strategic, long-term investments in new science and technology to ensure that our firefighters do not have to face tomorrow's fires with yesterday's tools. Forest management and similar long-term investments in wildfire prevention are also critically essential to reducing the burden on firefighters in the future. But technology needed to improve wildfire response is ready to help today. Hence, in this report we have intentionally trained our focus on critical aspects of wildfire response that are stuck — technologically and organizationally — in the last century. Several actions recommended in this report can be taken immediately to support the needs of today's wildland firefighters and vulnerable communities nationwide, as we also pursue the longer-term actions recommended here that can ensure an enduring focus on wildland firefighting science and technology development for decades to come.

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