Eastern States Fire and Aviation Program

Eastern States Fire Management is executing a total of nine Wildland Fire Statewide Master Cooperative and Stafford Act Response Agreements. These facilitate the coordination and exchange of personnel, equipment, supplies, and services with our interagency partners including the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the states of Mississippi, Michigan, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Alabama, and Minnesota. The goal is to have agreements signed in all 31 states by 2023. The BLM fields highly trained professional firefighters and managers who are committed to managing fire in the most effective ways possible to protect communities from the risk of wildfire, and improve wildlife habitat by the application of prescribed fire.

One of the fundamental objectives of the Jackson Interagency Hotshot Crew (JIHC) is to provide a management career track for traditionally underrepresented groups in the federal wildland fire workforce. To that end, JIHC managers reach out to minority populations and military veterans to promote the wildland fire community.