National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG)

Our Mission

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) provides national leadership to enable interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial partners.  

Our Priorities

• Establish national interagency wildland fire operations standards. Recognize that the decision to adopt standards is made independently by the NWCG members and communicated through their respective directives systems.
• Establish wildland fire position standards, qualifications requirements, and performance support capabilities (e.g. training courses, job aids) that enable implementation of NWCG standards.
• Support the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy goals: to restore and maintain resilient landscapes; create fire adapted communities; and respond to wildfires safely and effectively.
• Establish information technology (IT) capability requirements for wildland fire.
• Ensure that all NWCG activities contribute to safe, effective, and coordinated national interagency wildland fire operations.

Our Standards

NWCG standards establish common practices and requirements that enable efficient and coordinated national interagency wildland fire operations. These standards may include guidelines, procedures, processes, best practices, specifications, techniques, and methods. NWCG standards are interagency by design; however, the decision to adopt and utilize them is made independently by the individual member agencies and communicated through their respective directives systems.

Incident Position standards are a component of NWCG standards. They enable consistent and uniform performance by personnel mobilized by position under NIMS-ICS principles. Incident position standards include incident position descriptions (duties and responsibilities) and position qualification requirements for training, experience, physical fitness, and position currency.

NWCG Executive Board

The  NWCG Executive Board  is comprised of appointed representatives from the member entities. The Executive Board provides leadership, strategic direction, and managerial oversight of all aspects of NWCG management and operations. The Executive Board Members work in a collective, collaborative, and consensus-seeking manner to accomplish the NWCG mission.

NWCG Committees

NWCG committees and subgroups  are organized to accomplish the overall NWCG mission. They provide leadership within the major functional areas of wildland fire management.