Put the fire out
Wildfire is a policy choice, not just a natural disaster.
We publish the research, the primary documents and the field experience behind American wildfire policy — and we argue for putting fires out, restoring forests, and protecting the communities that live in them.
Photograph: National Wildfire Alliance archive
NWA by the numbers
What we are asking for
Our work
Four priorities
The policy positions every piece of research on this site is measured against.
Stop "Let Burn" Fires
End managed wildfire tactics that allow ignitions to grow under the banner of ecological benefit.
First, Put Out The Fire!
Extinguish wildfires immediately, then build communities that can withstand the next ignition.
Remove Hazardous Fuels
Clear the fuel buildup left by previous fires before it becomes the next fire's accelerant.
Restore Active Management
Return the forest management practices that measurably reduce wildfire risk on public land.
Inform
All research
The research library
63 reports, transcripts, papers and op-eds — searchable, filterable, and free to download.
Our work
Program hub
Four programs
Policy & Transparency
Wildfire governance at federal, state, and local levels — funding tracked, decisions documented, systems made legible.
Explore Policy & TransparencyCommunity Safety & Preparedness
Practical, local, and actionable: defensible space, evacuation readiness, and the tools neighborhoods use before a fire starts.
Explore Community Safety & PreparednessTruth & Accountability
Investigations into delayed response, incentive structures, and the strategies chosen when a fire starts.
Explore Truth & AccountabilityLand Stewardship
Forest management grounded in science and Indigenous knowledge: cultural burning, ecological thinning, habitat restoration.
Explore Land Stewardship
Assist
All stories
Stories & analysis
Field experience, argument and explanation from the people doing the work.
Analysis
Ted Stubblefield: Another Giant Gone
Ted Stubblefield, longtime U.S. Forest Service leader and Evergreen Foundation board member, dies at 85. A legacy of forest management, wildfire leadership, and advocacy.
Analysis
From the Vault MacCleery: April 29, 2010
A paper from the archive on how indigenous peoples shaped the pre-Columbian Southeast, and what centuries of widespread burning mean for the rare species and ecosystems found there today.
Analysis
Environmentalitis and the Cost of Forest Litigation in Western Oregon
A deep-dive into how environmental litigation reshaped federal forest policy, ended salvage logging, and helped fuel recurring wildfire disasters in western Oregon.
Analysis
New Mexico Megafires, and the Case for Reforming National Wildfire Policy
This article revisits Steve Pearce’s request for a post‑fire report after New Mexico’s 2012 Whitewater‑Baldy and Little Bear megafires, outlining Bill Derr’s findings, NWA’s four core principles, and the call to restore the 10 A.M. Policy, end “let burn” strategies, treat fuels, and actively manage
Analysis
Stewardship Without Access: Why Deferred Maintenance Is Silently Shrinking Public Lands
Brent Oliver argues that true Forest Service stewardship must include access, maintenance, and disability rights—not just land protection—while highlighting the growing deferred maintenance crisis.
Analysis
From the Vault - The True Costs of Wildfire and the Douglas Complex: Wildfire Cost‑Plus‑Loss Economics — National Wildfi
Dr. Bob Zybach and John Marker show that suppression is only a small fraction of wildfire damages, using the Douglas Complex to illustrate cost‑plus‑loss economics and a practical one‑page checklist for quantifying true wildfire impacts.
Independent research is funded by people, not agencies.
We take no money from the agencies or contractors we report on. That is what lets us publish a finding they would rather we did not.
Records and research
Filing fees, document costs, and the analyst time to read what comes back.
Publishing
Editing, review, and keeping every document freely available with no paywall.
Community material
The guides and briefings that reach people before a fire, not after.
Who we are
The people behind the research
NWA is 14 contributors — foresters, fire officers, researchers and journalists — who write under their own names about the land and the fires they have spent their careers working on.
46 of the 57 pieces in our story archive carry a named byline, and every byline links to the person who wrote it. Where we have no photograph of a contributor, we show their initials rather than a stock portrait of someone else.
Meet the team
NWA Newsletter
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