Funding will be used to carry out the goals of the national cohesive wildland fire management strategy

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Region 3 (Southwestern Region), awarded $1,280,920 to the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management under the State & Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Assistance program (CFDA 10.698) on September 12, 2025, with a completion date of September 30, 2027. This Project Grant funds the implementation of Arizona's National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy through coordinated prevention and information officer activities that establish statewide fire restrictions, hazard mitigation implementation via Firewise and Fire Adapted Community programs, and the development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform to support community wildfire preparedness plan mapping. These deliverables directly address wildfire risk reduction and community preparedness across Arizona's non-federal forest and rural lands.

Additionally, the grant supports operational capacity enhancement through the hiring of seasonal firefighters to augment the state's fire response capabilities. This multi-faceted approach combines landscape-level hazard mitigation, community engagement and planning infrastructure, and immediate suppression resource augmentation—key components within the State & Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Assistance program's emphasis on prevention, mitigation, and firefighting readiness across wildland-urban interface zones. The two-year performance period reflects the program's typical structure for supporting sustained state-level fire management infrastructure development and operational support.

This is accomplished through the prevention and information officers coordination of statewide fire restrictions, implementation of hazard mitigation activities through firewise and fire adapted community programs, creating a geographic information system platform to support community wildfire preparedness plan mapping, and hiring seasonal firefighters to augment the state response capabilities.