Michigan's spring wildfire season has returned, and firefighters from the Department of Natural Resources and other local fire departments already have been busy over the past few weeks responding to several flare-ups in the state's annual battle with wildfires.

Each year, thousands of preventable wildfires scorch the landscape and threaten valuable property damaging homes, cabins, outbuildings and improvements. Although fighting Michigan's wildfires is increasingly costly and hazardous, in one way, firefighting has become more efficient over the past two decades through innovation and partnerships.

After continually facing complex wildfire issues on their own, fire protection managers from natural resource agencies in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin met 25 years ago to discuss common challenges regarding constrained budgets, firefighter training and operational issues within a changing forest landscape.

In 1989, those three states signed an agreement forming the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact and, after official international approvals were given, the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba were admitted forming the current membership of the compact.

"Over the past 25 years, the compact has proven beneficial to the entire Great Lakes region," said Scott Heather, DNR state wildfire supervisor. "By utilizing the resources of the group we are better able to deal with wildfire concerns in a way we would never be able to as a single agency."

Heather said one example of this cooperation was the utilization of air suppression resources, which included water bombers and helicopters from Ontario and Minnesota, during the 2007 lightning-caused Sleeper Lake fire, which burned more than 18,000 acres in the eastern Upper Peninsula.

"Because agreements already were in place through the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact those helicopters and planes were able to launch missions and successfully operate across state lines and international borders without any loss of time or effectiveness," he said.

In recent years, Michigan also has sent firefighting hand crews and other resources to assist partner members when their firefighting resources become stretched because of severe fire conditions.

Such cooperative efforts don't end when the smoke clears. Another advantage of the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact is the ability to offer training that otherwise would not be possible through a single agency. Many times there is high-level training that is required by just a few people from an agency. By pooling resources the compact is able to offer advanced wildfire training within the Great Lakes region instead of having to travel across the country to enroll in a course.

Last year, each agency was able to send an Incident Management Team to specialized training that improved their abilities to manage large complex wildfires," Heather said. "This never would have been possible without the compact."

Another long-standing initiative of the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact is fire prevention.

"Each year, we meet to determine how best to reduce wildfires in the Great Lakes region" said Paul Kollmeyer, the DNR's fire prevention program coordinator. "We know the best method of fire prevention is educating out citizens."

This philosophy led the compact to create a special week aimed at wildfire prevention that could remind the public about the dangers of wildfires. It was determined that the third week of April commonly has the greatest fire occurrence for each member -- so this year's observance of Wildfire Prevention Week will be April 19-25.

Past prevention themes have included focusing on common fire causes, such as burning debris, campfires or arson. In 2004, the compact received a national award for promoting Smokey Bear's 60th birthday by producing a number of products highlighting Smokey's image and his familiar message that "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires," which remains one of the most successful slogans ever developed in any advertising campaign.

"This year's theme is 'Wildfire Costs You,'" Kollmeyer said. "It is intended to spotlight how wildfires carry a price tag beyond damaged trees.

"Wildfires are responsible for uncountable hours of work performed in hazardous situations by Michigan's firefighters," Kollmeyer explained. "Each firefighter requires protective safety clothing costing nearly $1,000. The price of a single fire truck is typically more than $100,000 and water-dropping aircraft run up charges at an average rate of $1,500 per hour. The total cost of suppressing the Sleeper Lake fire was $7.5 million."

This monetary message is intended to bring awareness that wildfires cost everyone, not just the careless person who gets a ticket for burning illegally or allowing a fire to escape control, or the neighbor whose property gets burned or the family whose home is destroyed.

Wildfires cost everyone and by preventing them we all can benefit from the savings.

For more information on wildfire prevention and safety, visit the DNR Web site at www.michigan.gov/dnr-fire.