In April 2004, a wildfire took a run toward the edge of the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. Air and engine resources attempted direct attack on the flanks, but they were making minimal progress. The head of the fire was moving at some 10,000 feet-per-hour with 15- to 20-foot flame lengths. Then the fire hit the Nayatawash treatment area, an area where overly dense vegetation had been reduced through a hazardous fuels removal project. Flame lengths dropped to 1 foot, and the rate of speed slowed to less than 1,000 feet-per-hour.

This slowdown of the fire enabled ground and air firefighters to stop the fire, saving a number of buildings and lowering overall fire suppression costs.
Like others across the nation, this success story demonstrates the importance of President Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative and the National Fire Plan.
Completed in September 2000, the National Fire Plan laid the foundation for a long-term program to reduce wildfire risk to people and communities and to improve the condition of the nation’s forests and rangelands.

Building upon this foundation, the President’s Healthy Forests Initiative and the bi-partisan Healthy Forests Restoration Act, signed by the President in December 2003, gave federal agencies more tools to work with communities. It emphasized removal of excessive vegetation fuels from the land, the building of partnerships, and maintenence of wildland firefighting capability.

The President’s efforts have led to real progress on the ground. Over the last four years federal agencies will have removed hazardous fuels from more than 10 million acres, double what was achieved in the preceding eight years. Half of these fuel removals under the National Fire Plan occurred in and around communities in the wildland urban interface, where homes are close to wildfire prone areas.
Federal cooperation with governors, state foresters, tribes, county officials and fire chiefs helps to assure state and local needs play a prominent role in the program. Over the past four years, workshops to help communities reduce fire hazards have attracted over 3,500 people from 2,000 communities. Rural volunteer fire departments have received fire protection grants and aid.

Unusually severe wildland fires threaten natural resources on some 190 million acres of public land across the nation as well as the lives, livelihoods and well-being of millions of Americans. The problem was decades in the making and will take many years to solve, but we now have a solid foundation on which to build and move forward. Working together, we can reduce fire’s threat and improve the condition of our forests, woodlands and rangelands.
For more information on the National Fire Plan and Healthy Forests Initiative, visit our Web site at www.fireplan.gov.

LYNN SCARLETT, ASST. SECRETARY
INTERIOR FOR POLICY, MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

Lynn Scarlett is Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Policy, Management and Budget and a leader of the interagency national Wildland Fire Leadership Council.