Interagency Post-fire Integration Council

Interagency Post-fire Integration Council (IPIC)

Wildfires in the United States are part of the natural cycle, but extreme wildfires are growing larger and more destructive. Extreme fires can burn an area beyond its ability to recover naturally. They also leave landscapes vulnerable to mudslides, debris flows and catastrophic flooding that affects water quality, damages infrastructure and puts lives at risk. These megafires impact communities and infrastructure, destroy habitat and biodiversity, degrade soils, impact the water cycle and more.

Often, a fire’s aftermath is more costly than the wildfire itself.

Recovery after catastrophic wildfires requires careful coordination across the entire landscape, between private landowners, local, state and Tribal governments, as well as and between federal agencies.

To strengthen coordination across federal agencies during post-fire recovery, the Departments of Agriculture, the Interior, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency signed a memorandum of understanding to streamline post-fire management.

The agreement captures how participating federal partners plan to align post-fire condition assessments, increase emergency response capacity, and improve long-term recovery efforts across the landscape.

This shared effort will be coordinated through the newly established Interagency Post-fire Integration Council (IPIC). The IPIC Members:

Post-fire Management Coordination MOU (PDF, 1.5 MB)

IPIC will be hosting a virtual webinar for practitioners to IPIC leadership, review the emerging work of the group, and discuss ways to engage on January 10 from 1 to 2 p.m. EST.

Register