Veteran fuels module in Rapid City, SD sets a standard for community assistance

Seated at the eastern edge of the Black Hills of South Dakota, the community of Rapid City and its adjacent neighborhoods are a prime example of the wildland-urban interface – areas where human settlement and development are interwoven with undeveloped wildlands and vegetation. The wildland-urban interface is of perpetually heightened concern to the wildland firefighting community, as there is often plenty of fuel to carry fire, and an abundance of potential risks to human property and even human lives.

With its mix of ponderosa pine forests and sprawling grasslands, Rapid City and its surrounding areas fall into the ninetieth percentile of nationally estimated fire potential (wildfirerisk.org). This is an example of a western community in which the question is not if, but when wildfire impacts will occur.

This makes the work of the Rapid City Fire Department’s Wildfire Mitigation group, Veterans Wildland Fuels Module, especially crucial to the safety of these communities. Working in partnership with a multitude of neighboring cooperators, the module brings vital expertise and professionalism to the unified effort to reduce wildfire-related risk and maintain fire-adapted communities.

 The Veterans Wildland Fuels Module was established in 2013 utilizing grant funding from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Since then, the module has become a fixture in their community, built a large roster of partners, diversified their funding sources, and served as a standard of what community assistance programs, fully- or partially-funded by BLM, can accomplish. As a veteran crew, the module provides career avenues that help those that have served in their country’s military to reintegrate into civilian life, while maintaining the priorities of service and belonging to a team that are so familiar to returning service members.

What does work look like for the module? As they are working closely around communities, most of their target vegetation is cut, chipped, and removed, after which it is made available to the local public as mulch through Rapid City’s Solid Waste Division – another partnership that further serves community members. That said, the module also practices prescribed burning. In 2024, they assisted on 1,283 acres of prescribed fire projects hosted by their neighbors, including the Montana/Dakotas Bureau of Land Management and Black Hills National Forest. These partnerships provide members of the module with exceptional opportunities for experience and career development.

The February 2025 edition of the module’s newsletter listed their 2024 totals for fuels mitigation and more, including 166 acres treated, 18 properties on which defensible space was improved, and 117 structures protected. Total property values protected by the module in 2024 totaled $52,740,000, almost all from single family dwellings. The module also recorded nearly 1000 direct public contacts, not including social or news media, and expressed their hope to double this number in 2025.

 The excellent work of this fuels module in Rapid City is an inspiring example of how fuels management in a very fire-prone area can convey a myriad of benefits to individuals as well as the broader community.

“This program establishes safer, healthier, more sustainable landscapes throughout the whole Rapid City area,” said Eric O’Connor, Wildfire Mitigation Lieutenant for the Rapid City Fire Department. “The module continues to do great things in our community. The outstanding support we receive from the BLM, our city, neighboring agencies, and our neighbors is what makes us so successful. We’re all in this together.”