Leading Through Crisis:
Forest Service Wildfire Crisis
Strategy Partnership Team

Award-Winning Climate Resilience Leadership
and Partnership Development

BlueTerra Partners’ founder aligned $500M in wildfire resilience resources across multiple national agreements, supporting critical fire treatments in 21 wildfire crisis strategy landscapes across the country. That portfolio model now forms BlueTerra Partners’ blueprint for coordinated, innovative investment strategies and meaningful partnership development.

A wildfire burning in a forest with thick smoke, dead trees, and a vehicle on the road amid the flames and smoke.

The Challenge

In 2022, the U.S. federal government made historic new wildfire resilience investments via multiple “keystone” partnership agreements. Without coordination, these agreement and associated funding streams would not have their intended impact. In addition, the Forest Service’s decentralized structure required intentional coordination to connect those funds to the right local projects and avoid devastating wildfires.

The Approach

BlueTerra Partners’ founder helped design and lead the Wildfire Crisis Strategy Partnership Team to provide nationwide management and coordination for these historic partnership agreements. The approach included:

  • Treating seven distinct agreements as a unified portfolio, with coherent messaging, strategy, and shared alignment.

  • Building matching processes to connect local wildfire mitigation projects with partner capabilities and funding fairly and transparently.

  • Creating a multi-level coordination structure linking executives, regional offices, and field staff to maintain coherence and ensure momentum.

  • Developing a communication framework so each ranger district and local office understood how to access and deploy the resources available to them.

A dense forest scene with tall, thin trees and abundant green undergrowth, sunlight filtering through the canopy.

Results

  • Coordinated $500M in partner resources across national agreements to maximize impact.

  • Aligned stakeholders across federal, regional, and field levels so actions were synchronized rather than fragmented.

  • In cooperation with other Wildfire Crisis Strategy efforts, supported the treatment of 803,000+ acres in FY24 in high-risk landscapes.

  • Achieved measurable risk reduction: homes, infrastructure, and watersheds saw substantial avoided costs and significant declines in wildfire exposure.

  • Earned the Forest Service Chief’s Honor Award for exemplary coordination in a crisis environment.

Why It Matters

This case shows that even in chaotic, high-stakes environments, well-structured partnership systems can marshal resources, align cooperators, and deliver tangible results. The approach didn’t just respond to crisis—it built a well-coordinated management system to ensure more resilient landscapes. At BlueTerra Partners, these lessons inform how we help clients orchestrate complex funding portfolios, align stakeholder networks, and sustain partnership impact under pressure.

Let’s work together to build your success story.

At BlueTerra Partners, we draw on what we’ve learned through this work—coordinating across stakeholders, aligning partners, and connecting funds to needs—to support organizations seeking to deliver resilient, measurable results together.