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National Interagency Fire Center

U.S. federal government information source

Owned byNot owned by a single entity; NIFC is a shared federal facility operated cooperatively by multiple U.S. agencies including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Weather Service (NWS), U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), and the National Association of State Foresters (NASF). In 2026, the Department of the Interior consolidated several of its fire programs into a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS), which also operates at NIFC.
FundingFunded through annual federal budget appropriations distributed among the participating federal agencies. No advertising, subscriptions, or private funding.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

NIFC was established in 1965 as the Boise Interagency Fire Center (BIFC) when the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and National Weather Service agreed to pool resources for coordinating national wildfire response. Physical campus construction began in 1968 in Boise, Idaho. Through the 1970s, additional Interior Department agencies — the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — joined the cooperative facility. In 1993, the name was changed to National Interagency Fire Center to reflect its broader, multi-agency national mission. By 2025, NIFC employed roughly 650 people year-round and served as the nation's primary logistical, intelligence, and decision-support hub for wildland fire and other all-hazard incidents. In 2026, the Department of the Interior reorganized its scattered wildland fire offices — previously split across BIA, BLM, FWS, NPS, and the Office of Wildland Fire — into a single U.S. Wildland Fire Service, which now operates at NIFC. Beginning in early 2025, the Trump administration's DOGE-driven budget cuts and workforce reductions significantly reduced staffing levels across NIFC's partner agencies, with the Forest Service losing at least 1,800 fire-qualified workers; Congress subsequently blocked a proposed merger of USFS and USWFS pending a feasibility study. NIFC publishes official annual wildfire statistics, daily situation reports during fire season, and national outlook forecasts; this data is treated as the federal government's authoritative record on wildfire activity.

Sources

  1. NIFC History | National Interagency Fire Center
  2. What is NIFC? | National Interagency Fire Center
  3. National Interagency Fire Center | Wikipedia
  4. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) | USAGov
  5. Our Partners | National Interagency Fire Center
  6. Trump Said Cuts Wouldn't Affect Public Safety. Then He Fired Hundreds of Workers Who Help Fight Wildfires | ProPublica
  7. Hope—and Many Fears—Follow in the Wake of Trump's Plan to Transform Wildland Firefighting | Inside Climate News
  8. STATEMENT: White House proposes giving DOGE control over fighting wildfires | Center for Western Priorities
  9. Statistics | National Interagency Fire Center

Profile compiled 2026-07-24; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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