BIA Forestry and Wildland Fire Management

Where terrain limits, our wildland fire personnel adapt.

Short haul is a specialized technique used in wildland firefighting for rapid, emergency extraction of injured personnel or insertion of firefighters into remote and sometimes technical locations where ground access may be challenging.

It’s one of many aviation capabilities that support safe and effective wildland fire operations.

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service, short haul at Yosemite National Park.

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Protecting Indian Country from wildfire 🤝

Strong partnerships strengthen our ability to protect communities, conserve natural resources, and respond quickly to wildfires.

🤝We work hand-in-hand with state and local governments on prevention, preparedness, and coordinated response.
🤝We work with tribal nations and support government-to-government agreements to uphold trust responsibilities.
🤝We also partner with the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies through shared standards, unified incident command, coordinated resource deployment, and joint planning to ensure a seamless wildfire response.

Learn more about our partnerships: https://www.doi.gov/wildlandfireservice/partnerships

Photo by Monte Kawahara / Bureau of Land Management

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Every wildland fire response starts somewhere. Ours starts with the dispatchers behind the scenes and the boots on the ground.

We’re hiring Wildland Firefighters and Dispatchers to join our team. Whether you’re on the fireline or coordinating resources behind the scenes, your work directly supports firefighter safety, incident operations, and community protection.

These are multiple opportunities with room to grow in a career that makes a real impact.

📅 Apply by 03/05/2026
📍Choose from a wide range of locations and find the right fit for you.
Wildland Firefighter – GW 03/04/05: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/858289000
Fire Dispatch – GW 04/05: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/858288300

Curious about all of our current openings? Explore and apply here: www.usajobs.gov/Search/Results?k=uswfs&p=1

Photo by Joe Bradshaw / Bureau of Land Management

The Timber Team Assists the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa🌲:

The Timber Team recently traveled to Cloquet, Minnesota to assist the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa with marking four timber sale areas. Timber sale objectives included thinning red pine plantations to reduce hazardous fuel loading and release existing hardwood regeneration in the understory. Alongside Midwest Region’s Timber Sales Forester, Fond du Lac forestry staff, and Eastern Region’s Timber Sales Forester, the Team marked 108 acres of red pine and other conifers for harvest. While marking, they utilized the sample tree frequency cruise method to gather data such as species, diameter at breast height, and tree heights. After marking approximately 10,800 trees across four timber sale areas, the Timber Team Supervisory Forester demonstrated how to process the cruise data using a software program called FSCruiser. This program calculates important metrics such as total net volume, quadratic mean diameter, and ensuring the sampling error meets BIA standard requirements for timber sale inventories.

In addition to assisting with timber sale preparation, the Timber Team completed 25 stand exam plots where they recorded tree species, diameter at breast height, and total tree height. Within each stand, three trees were cored with an increment borer to determine site index. Additionally, regeneration plots were also measured to determine seedling and sapling densities. Fond du Lac forestry staff will use this data to help determine future forest management decisions such as planting, thinning, and insect and disease monitoring.

📸Photos taken by Madison Kresse, BIA.

By BIA uniting with the USWFS, wildland fire response will be more efficient in protecting Indian country from wildfires. 🔥

We’re leading wildfire response, risk mitigation, and burned area rehabilitation across more than 500 million acres of U.S. Department of the Interior administered and tribal lands.

These lands include:
• National parks and historic and cultural sites managed by the National Park Service.
• National wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
• Tribal lands and lands held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Interior-managed lands span diverse ecosystems across the United States – from grasslands and rangelands to forests, deserts and tundra – and are home to critical wildlife habitat, cultural and historical resources, recreational opportunities and communities that depend on healthy, resilient landscapes.

Photo by Scott Nilsen.

Before performing any debris burning, please register your burn with Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency (NNEPA) Air Quality Control Program. For information, call (928) 729-4246. Debris burning applies to agricultural and cultural or ceremonial purposes, not trash burning.