November 10, 2015

The Wildland Fire Science and Technology Task Force, chartered under the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction, released a report in conjunction with the Fire Chiefs’ White House Roundtable recommending better communication between federal agencies that gather research on wildfire mitigation and response and the people that use the research to inform policy makers.

The report recommends the creation of a Federal Fire Science Coordination Council to improve interagency coordination and to share the latest advances in wildland-fire science and technology research. The group would consist of fire-management executives from the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  According to the report, there is no organized reporting of fire research program outcomes conducted by federal agencies. The Task Force concludes that the Council would link fire researchers with fire managers and improve fire mitigation, response, and recovery.

Sources: whitehouse.gov, eenews