Forget fighting fire with fire—coordination and communication are key to keeping blazes at bay. So says the latest phase of the national wildfire management strategy, released last week by U.S. Departments of Agriculture and the Interior.

The report, A National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, is the second of a three-phase initiative aimed at taking the sting out of wildland burns by limiting the damage they cause and collaborating on response. The first phase, completed in 2011, created a national framework and identified goals. Phase II condenses those goals to regional levels that consider the resources, challenges, and capacities of three distinct regions—the Northeast, the Southeast, and the West.

“Phase II sets a strong foundation for the type of diverse interests and activities involved when wildfire strikes,” Butch Blazer, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment, said in a press release.

Among the drivers of the initiative is the ever-escalating cost of fighting wildfires, especially in the face of prime burn conditions caused by climate change. Often local and even state agencies don’t have the equipment or manpower to address the type of disastrous fire that can develop in current conditions.

“It’s not going away,” USDA Under Secretary Harris Sherman told the Associated Press June 7. “We’re going to have to be more comprehensive and smarter in how we deal with these issues in the future.”

As if to underscore that statement, several significant fires raged in the West this week, including the 59 square-mile Little Bear fire near Ruidoso, New Mexico, and the 73 square-mile High Park fire near Fort Collins, Colorado. With fires already burning in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and new ones cropping up daily, resources are in high demand.

"You have to look at the big picture all the time and make sure there are adequate numbers to respond to the next fire," Jim Fletcher, who coordinates ground crews, smoke jumpers, and air tankers for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center, told the Denver Post.

The need to pool response resources, though, is the worst-case scenario. The national strategy is more focused on protecting property and infrastructure from fire before it starts. The hope is that, by creating resilient landscapes, reducing hazardous fuels, and helping communities adapt to their fire risk, there will be less fallout even when fire is widespread.

“The cost of dealing with the aftermath of [the 2002 Hayman Fire in Colorado] far exceeded what proactive steps might have been taken at the outset to prevent those types of things from happening,” Sherman said. The third phase of the initiative will create national and regional risk analyses and action plans based on the potential fire consequences and benefits. Action plans are expected to be completed next spring.