As we approach peak wildfire season, Nevada's governor and top fire officials met for the 2025 Nevada Wildfire Briefing.
The briefing consisted of plans for the upcoming fire season.
The annual meeting saw fire leaders from local, state and federal agencies providing the governor with the outlook.
In the 83rd Nevada Legislative Session this year, there was new legislation passed to get the state more fire resources.
Before when a fire broke out in Nevada, they could request help from federal partners and California.
Now, after the legislation was signed from Governor Joe Lombardo, Nevada has entered into an interstate agreement to work across state lines.
"We have the same resources we did last year, except for the addition of the ability for the us to enter into the Great Plains Compact and the Northwest compact which we did not have before," said Kacey KC, State Forester and Fire Warden for the Nevada Division of Forestry.
Those two agreements were a part of Senate Bill 19.
"Which allows the state to order, state-to-state," KC said. "We've always been able to order assets from our federal agreements, we've had that agreement for 70 plus years. This allows us to mobilize things differently and one of the reasons is we've had a state to state with California and that's what you saw on the Davis Fire."
Another piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 578, gave $6 million for conservation projects for the Nevada Shared Stewardship Agreement, which is an agreement for state and federal agencies to work together and set joint priorities.
One local fire chief says that every fire agency being on the same page greatly helps in the efforts.
"There is no fire department—state, federal or local—that can mitigate a certain emergency on their own; so we need that collaboration and cooperation to help give the governor the tools that he needs to help with that mission," said Chief Dave Cochran, Reno Fire Department.
When looking ahead at the upcoming fire season, there are a lot of dry fuels in our region that concern officials.
The Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) says there are a lot of carry over fuels such as cheatgrass, from the lack of lower elevation snow in the winter and then more growing from later season rain.
The NDF says we are getting closer to a critically dry level. While it's not quite at the point yet, it is approaching.
"As it looks today. we are going to be in a little bit more of a fire season than what we have had in the past couple of years," KC said. "We have a lot of dry carry over fuel in the western and northern parts of the state that is increasing our fire potential and danger."
With potential of more federal budget cuts still in the air, the Division of Forestry says it's not a concern for resources.
They said as of now, they will have access to the amount of resources they did last year.
Fire officials are also reminding folks to still practice home hardening and defensible space.
Despite recent fires from lightening storms, firefighters still stress that most are caused by people - so they are asking people to be cautious of target shooting and campfires.Â
