As wildfires worsen, Nevada seeks to join compacts as another ‘tool in the toolbox’

In this handout photo provided by the Reno Fire Department, fire crews battle the Callahan Fire, which caused the evacuations of hundreds of homes southwest of Reno, Nev., Monday, Nov. 11, 2024.
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By Amy Alonzo — As ‘70s R&B icon Bill Withers said, “We all need somebody to lean on.” Nevada’s state agency in charge of fighting fires agrees.

That’s why Nevada Division of Forestry’s (NDF) leadership is looking to join not one but two interstate wildfire compacts — agreements that let states more easily transfer resources across state lines during emergencies.

Without a compact, Nevada is involved in a set of complicated agreements with individual states for wildfire assistance — described by Nevada State Forester and Fire Warden Kacey KC as a “web of agreements that’s … astronomical.”

A bill being introduced this session could streamline that process. Last week, KC and Sen. Julie Pazina (D-Las Vegas) presented SB19 to lawmakers. The bill would allow the state to join two firefighting compacts:

• The Great Plains Compact, comprising Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan;
•  and the Northwest Compact, comprising Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and multiple Canadian provinces.

“The whole purpose for asking to get into the compacts is for efficiency of operations … and the speed of response assets in or out of state,” KC told The Nevada Independent after the Thursday hearing. “It’s efficiency and it’s speed, and that’s important when you’re looking at the first 24 hours of not trying to get a fire to go further.”

One of just three states not in a compact 

Congress authorized states to enter wildfire compacts as far back as the 1950s.

States and various Canadian territories and provinces have since clustered together to form eight firefighting compacts across the United States and Canada. All but a handful of states prior to 2024 (California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Utah) opted to join.

“I don’t know exactly why [Nevada didn’t join],” KC told lawmakers.

But as wildfires have grown larger and more costly, some holdout states have converted.  

In the wake of the devastating 2023 wildfire in Maui’s Lahaina area, Hawaii joined the Northwest Compact. Arizona joined the Great Plains Compact last year. Now, only California, Utah and Nevada are not legislatively authorized to join compacts, although all of the states are looking to join at least one compact, KC said.

Joining either compact will allow for faster state-to-state movement of resources, KC told lawmakers, as well as faster repayment for services — joining both compacts will allow Nevada to have access to more resources because of differences in the way they operate.

In the Northwest Compact, states can only share resources with states within the compact; in the Great Plains Compact, states can share resources outside of the compact.

“We’re going to be a bridge,” KC said. 

If the bill passes and is signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo, he can then write to the compacts to request to join. 

Talking with The Indy, KC didn’t have an estimate of how many resources go in and out of Nevada each year — that depends on the size and number of fires in and out of the state, which can vary wildly year-to-year. 

But she cited the September Davis Fire that threatened South Reno as a reason to encourage interstate partnerships. Aircraft to battle the blaze came from California, a state that Nevada has a separate, interstate compact with, and additional aircraft were routed from the Pacific Northwest through a federal contract. 

“It’s really important to have all the tools in the toolbox, and this is another tool for movement,” she told The Indy. 

Federal fire funding frozen

Nevada’s push to join an interstate compact comes as wildfire fighting resources nationwide are in turmoil.

About 2,000 U.S. Forest Service probationary employees were laid off earlier this month, including those that do fuels reduction work such as removing brush, thinning trees and managing prescribed burns. 

Funding has also been suspended for approximately $3 billion in hazardous fuels reduction programs across the West. The halting of some of those programs, including pauses to fuels reduction work by the Bureau of Land Management, prompted a letter from 14 Democratic senators, including Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), to new Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking for the work to be reinstated. 

“These fuels reduction projects save lives and property, reduce the danger to firefighters, and return our lands to a fire-adapted ecosystem that can better withstand the threat to human life, communities, infrastructure, and property,” the lawmakers wrote.

— This story is used with permission of The Nevada Independent. Go here for updates to this and other Nevada Independent stories.

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