The Defense Department is working with interagency partners to strengthen federal coordination of recovery efforts in response to wildfires.
DOD joined the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior and Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency in announcing a memorandum of agreement this month that will foster interagency coordination in helping communities recover after a wildfire.
Extreme wildfires often create cascading impacts, including severe mudslides, permanent loss of habitats and biodiversity and degradation in soils, which can have lasting post-fire impacts on communities.
These conditions can sometimes be more costly to address than the wildfire itself and response efforts often require coordination among multiple federal, state, local and tribal agencies.
The memorandum, developed by the White House Wildfire Resilience Interagency Working Group, follows recommendations by the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, which was created in 2021 to form federal policy recommendations related to wildfire prevention, suppression and recovery.
In its 2023 report to Congress, the commission noted that post-fire recovery is often fragmented and called for better integration among federal agencies in responding to impacts across jurisdictions.
“This interagency post-fire MOU is a pivotal step in allowing for a more rapid and coordinated whole of government response to wildfire-related challenges, including fires that impact military installations and the surrounding defense communities,” said Brendan Owens, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment.
“Our integrated approach protects environmental assets, safeguards vital military missions and enables us to maintain operational readiness,” he said.
DOD has long been an important stakeholder and partner to local communities in wildfire readiness, response and recovery efforts.
And military communities, themselves, contend with the threat of wildfires and the long-term impacts they can have.
The Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area in Hawaii, for example, was among the 17,000 total acres burned during the Leilani fire in 2022.
The department has funded more than $500,000 of post-fire restoration projects on lands near the training area that were impacted by the fire as part of the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program.
The department has also funded $663,877 across 12 post-fire projects and research through the DOD Legacy Resource Management Program.
“The cascading impacts in the wake of a destructive wildfire require cross-jurisdictional collaboration to address community impacts, in a way that ensures restoration of built and natural infrastructure to a more resilient state,” Owens said.
He said, with the MOU, the department is working with agency partners to create “a more secure and resilient future for our forces and the communities they partner with.”
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