Links
In this section of the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact website you will find useful links to other wildfire related sites including: compact member websites, other wildfire compacts, emergency and resource agencies, national wildfire agencies, and other fire related websites.
If you are a compact member, you can suggest a link by contacting us to submit your link for review and approval.
Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact Member Websites
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Forest Management Division
Fire is an event controlled by fuels, weather, and topography. Fire occurs neary everywhere that fuel in a flammable condition is present in sufficient quantities, and when an ignition source is available. Prior to the appearance of humans in North America, the ingredients for fire were largely controlled by climate.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry
Through shared information, technology, and understanding, we empower others and ourselves to: sustain and enhance functioning forest ecosystems; provide a sustainable supply of forest resources to meet human need (e.g., material, economic, and social); protect lives and property from wildfires; and provide a dollar return to the permanent school trust.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry
The mission of the Bureau of Forest Protection is to protect human life, property, and natural resources from wildfire. That mission is accomplished through fire suppression efforts, extensive training, a variety of fire prevention and safety programs, partnerships with a variety of fire related agencies, including fire departments, and sound scientific principles.
Ministry of Natural Resources, Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services
Welcome to our website. We’ve been in business a long time. In fact, Ontario has had organized forest fire protection since 1885 and our air service marked its 75th anniversary in 1999, making it the longest, continuous flying government air service in the world, outside the military.
Province of Manitoba, Fire Program
Manitoba Fire Program is responsible for the detection and suppression of wild fires. The program manages all human and equipment resources needed for fighting wild fires in the province. Staff monitor weather patterns, lightning strikes, soil moisture and forest conditions to determine the probability and location of wild fires.
Emergency and Resource Agency Websites
FEMA Mission – DISASTER. It strikes anytime, anywhere. It takes many forms — a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, a fire or a hazardous spill, an act of nature or an act of terrorism. It builds over days or weeks, or hits suddenly, without warning. Every year, millions of Americans face disaster, and its terrifying consequences.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) works to ensure the responsible development of Canada’s natural resources, including energy, forests, minerals and metals. We also use our expertise in earth sciences to build and maintain an up-to-date knowledge base of our landmass and resources.
National Wildfire Agency Websites
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) provides operational fire-control services, as well as management and information services to its Member Agencies. In addition to coordinating services for all of the provinces and territories, CIFFC often coordinates the sharing of resources with the United States and other countries.
The National Interagency Fire Center is the focal point for overseeing all interagency coordination activities throughout the United States. Wildfire suppression is built on a three-tiered system of support – the local area, one of the 11 geographic areas, and finally, the national level. When a fire is reported, the local agency and its firefighting partners respond. If the fire continues to grow, the agency can ask for help from its geographic area. When a geographic area has exhausted all its resources, it can turn to NICC at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) for help in locating what is needed, from air tankers to radios to firefighting crews to incident management teams.
The Fire and Aviation Management part of the USDA Forest Service is a diverse group of people working to advance technologies in fire management and suppression, maintain and improve the extremely efficient mobilization and tracking systems in place, and reach out in support of our Federal, State, and International fire partners.
Fire plays an important role in most forest ecosystems in Canada. As these ecosystems have evolved over the last 10,000-15,000 years (since the glacial retreat at the end of the last ice age), fire has helped to maintain their health and diversity. From a socio-economic perspective fire can, however, have negative or undesirable effects on public health and safety, property, and natural resources.
The Eastern Area Coordination Center (EACC) serves federal and state wildland fire agencies within the twenty-state Eastern Area (EA). EACC provides logistical support, resources, and intelligence for anticipated and ongoing wildland fire activity. EACC facilitates movement of resources (people, aircraft, ground equipment) among the EA member agencies and their individual units. EACC monitors wildfire potential, weather, and wildland fire use with the EA. EACC also responds to requests for support to other geographic areas from the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) at Boise, ID.
FIRENET- National Park Services Fire and Aviation Management
The Fire Management Program Center (FMPC) provides national leadership, direction, coordination, and support for NPS fire, aviation, and incident management of wildand fires within the National Parks Services Program.
Other Wildfire Related Compact Websites
The mandate of the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Commission (NFFPC) is to provide the means for its member states and provinces to cope with fires that might be beyond the capabilities of a single member through information, technology and resource sharing (mutual aid) activities.
As the name suggests, our compact encompasses the major rivers found in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri. Information about Wildfire Prevention and the FireWise Program is located on this site. BRFFMC members use this site to digitally store and retrieve operations, training and mutual aid information. A list of links to other similar agencies in North America and to fire weather sites is also here.
The Middle-Atlantic Interstate Forest Fire Protection Compact
is authorized by Public Law and is endorsed by the legislative bodies of: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. The purpose of the Compact is to promote effective fire prevention and the control of wildfires in the Mid-Atlantic region. Collectively, the states are responsible for protecting more than 35,000,000 acres of woodland. The Compact coordinates the development and integration of forest fire plans, maintenance of adequate fire fighting services by the member states and provides mutual aid in forest fire fighting.
Other Fire Related Websites
Wildfires that involve buildings and wildland vegetation simultaneously are known as interface fires. Such fires present unique challenges and obstacles that must be addressed through practical, proactive, community-based solutions. Partners in Protection, therefore, is a multi-disciplinary partnership committed to raising awareness, providing information, and developing forums with a view to encouraging proactive, community-based initiatives. Such initiatives would have as their principal objective to reduce risk of fire losses and enhance safety in the wildland-urban interface.
The Fire Sciences Lab (FiSL), an arm of the Rocky Mountain Research Station located in Missoula, MT, is home to the Fire Behavior Project, Fire Chemistry Project, Fire Ecology/Fuels Project and LANDFIRE. The staff of these projects perform a variety of research on fire-related issues and topics.
The national Firewise Communities program is a multi-agency effort designed to reach beyond the fire service by involving homeowners, community leaders, planners, developers, and others in the effort to protect people, property, and natural resources from the risk of wildland fire – before a fire starts. The Firewise Communities approach emphasizes community responsibility for planning in the design of a safe community as well as effective emergency response, and individual responsibility for safer home construction and design, landscaping, and maintenance.
Providing a comprehensive set of weather information, and integrating it with modeled fire danger, behavior, and effects information in a single information system provides an important resource for decision-makers and can be used as an aid in developing research questions. Great Lakes Fire/Fuels provides such a resource, with data from a variety of weather recording station networks and National Weather Service (NWS) gridded products. Improved access to displays in both geographic and historical contexts helps fill gaps in traditional data sources and forecast horizons. The system recognizes the importance of weather, fuels, and fire behavior interpretations to fire management decisions before, during, and after the fire event. Placing this variety of data sources and associated interpretations in context will suggest a wide range of research questions related to data quality, model applicability and user accessibility.