MISSOULA — President Trump signed an executive order titled “Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response” on June 12, ordering the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to consolidate their wildland fire programs.
The order would consolidate a total of five different fire agencies into a single entity.
The executive order comes in the face of a growing wildfire season, something that Neptune Aviation is more than aware of. And they say that with this executive order, they will be able to better assist in firefighting efforts.
“We believe it'll streamline some of the processes and some of the things we've been advocating for as an industry. We think we're hopeful for better contracting situations, like, for example, longer contracting terms, multi-year contracts,” said Jennifer Draughon, president of Neptune Aviation.
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The Bureau of Land Management Fire and Aviation, National Park Service Wildland Fire Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fire Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs Fire Management and the U.S. Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management will soon all be consolidated into one single entity, all with the aim of better fighting wildland fires.
In a statement to MTN, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of the Interior said,
“The proposed U.S. Wildland Fire Service is about bringing federal wildfire efforts under one roof—making the system more coordinated, more effective on the ground, and more efficient overall. It will enable more strategic reduction of wildfire risk, create fire-resilient landscapes, promote fire-adapted communities, and support quicker and safer wildfire response through strong federal, tribal, state, and local collaboration.”
Neptune Aviation has historically held contracts with independent agencies, typically lasting around 120 days or the course of a fire season. It's something that Neptune Aviation president Jennifer Draughon says was becoming outdated.
“We know that wildfire seasons aren't seasons anymore. Wildland fire is year-round. And so to have year-round readiness, so a year, a longer contract so that aerial firefighting assets are placed where they need to be year-round so that we can actually combat fires the way they need to be combat now with the seasons that we're facing, I think that'll be, it should be effective that way,” explained Draughon.
Draughon hopes that companies like hers will now see longer contracts, which she claims will better help the preparedness for when fires break out.
“If you're pre-positioned and you're not having to be deployed from a tanker base that's an hour and a half away and you're pre-positioned year-round, you can get that. You can get that you can be activated and ready to go in 15 minutes and on that fire and putting it out before it becomes acres and acres and catastrophic in nature,” said Draughon.
The executive order requires the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to consolidate the five agencies into one within 90 days of June 12.
Draughon said they are unsure of when the new contracts will be coming through, but that they are hopeful that when they come, it will better help them modernize their fleet due to a more predictable revenue stream.
