This month, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is deploying forest rangers to assist with efforts to contain wildfires in Idaho and Montana. The interstate assistance comes as a team of DEC engineers recently performed dam safety inspections in Vermont to support the recovery from last month’s historic flooding.
New York State responded to Vermont’s request for assistance under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a mutual aid compact that helps provide a consistent, coordinated response to disasters across the country and establishes a legal framework for reimbursement among states. Vermont officials were able to inspect more than 400 dams with the help of staff from New York and Massachusetts in conjunction with their own staff from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
