• Rural Fire Assistance
• Wildland Urban Interface

Rural Fire Assistance

Rural Fire Assistance

Each year, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) provides Rural Fire Assistance (RFA) grants to neighboring community fire departments to enhance local wildfire protection, purchase equipment, and train volunteer firefighters. Service fire staff also assist directly with community projects. These efforts reduce the risk to human life and better permit FWS firefighters to interact and work with community fire organizations when fighting wildfires. The Department of the Interior (DOI) receives an appropriated budget each year for an RFA grant program. The maximum award per grant is $20,000. The DOI assistance program targets rural and volunteer fire departments that routinely help fight fire on or near DOI lands.

In the wake of the 2000 fire season, Congress recognized that safe and effective protection of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) requires close coordination among local, state, tribal, and federal firefighting resources, and that rural and volunteer fire departments responding to wildland fires needed to improve overall firefighting safety and augment their fire protection capabilities. The RFA program was funded at $10 million per year from 2001 - 2005, with FWS receiving about 12 percent of the total program funding. RFA funds are used to purchase equipment, including personal protective equipment (PPE), communications equipment, firefighting tools, and water hauling equipment. Funds are also used by rural fire departments (RFDs) for training and prevention programs.

Along with RFDs, the FWS has benefited greatly from this program. The majority of FWS land units do not have dedicated wildland fire staff, and so depend on RFDs to assist with wildland fire protection. The RFA program has allowed the Service to assist rural departments to increase the level of preparedness and safety, improving fire protection on both national wildlife refuges and surrounding communities.

FAQs about the RFA Program

Read about some FWS Rural Fire Assistance projects.....

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages public land in every U.S. state and territory, including 547 national wildlife refuges and 69 national fish hatcheries.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages 75 million burnable acres, including 24 million acres of forest/brushland and 4 million acres of grassland.

More than 50% of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands in the continental U.S. (and more than 90% in Alaska) include fire-adapted ecosystems with vegetation dependent on periodic fire.

An average of 500 wildfires burn 260,000 acres each year on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands. The Service also burns about 300,000 acres a year using prescribed fire.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service annual fire program budget is approximately $80 million.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employs more than 530 permanent fire professionals, along with 270 seasonal and temporary fire employees during fire season.

More than 3,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees are qualified to assist with wildland fire management on an interagency basis.

The U.S. Fish and Wildland Service Fire Management Program protects more than 700 communities and wildland-urban interface areas.

Historically, an acre was the amount of land tillable by one man behind an ox in one day. This measures 90% of a football field. There are 640 acres in a square mile.

More than 90% of the hazardous fuels reduction by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is completed using prescribed fire.