Wildland Fire Management Merit Badge
Eleven requirements, most of them discussions. Three take arranging: a demonstration with three wildland fire hand tools, a choice of five ways to take action that each need a place or a person, and a suppression-tactics exercise that reuses the diagram from requirement 5(c).
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The plan behind this
Most of this badge is talking. Three parts are not
Requirements 1 to 4, 6, 10 and 11 are research and discussion with your counselor. They can be done in any order, at a table. Three things cannot:
| requirement | what it needs | why it takes arranging |
|---|---|---|
| 8(a) | three hand tools unique to wildland fire suppression, and somewhere to build a fireline with one | you need access to the tools and to ground you may dig |
| 9 (one of five) | a place or a person: see below | somebody else's time, or a project your counselor approves |
| 7(a) | your 5(c) diagram or a map of a wildfire, plus tokens | nothing hard, if 5(c) was drawn with this in mind |
Ask about 8(a) at your first meeting. Your counselor will know where the tools are, and the demonstration is done under their eye.
5(c) is drawn for 7(a)
Requirement 5(c) asks you to draw a diagram of the parts of a wildfire. Requirement 7(a) then asks you to demonstrate suppression tactics "using the diagram you created in Requirement 5(c) or a map of a wildfire", with tokens for firefighting resources. A map will do, so this is not a gate, but a 5(c) diagram big enough to put tokens on saves drawing a second one.
7(a) and 7(b) may both be done alone or with a small team.
Requirement 9: do ONE of five
| route | what it needs |
|---|---|
| 9(a) a fire readiness plan | a wildland area you know, mapped with resources, water, barriers and access |
| 9(b) visit a forestry official or fire warden | a state or federal forestry official, or your local fire warden |
| 9(c) a Firewise assessment and project | a home or building in the wildland-urban interface (a Scout camp building counts), a project your counselor approves, and a written report |
| 9(d) a fire prevention message | a Fire Prevention Specialist or local fire official, then a skit, video or billboard concept shared with your counselor and troop |
| 9(e) fire weather | a meteorologist or someone familiar with fire weather |
9(c) is the longest: an assessment, then a project, then a report. Four of the five depend on somebody else's calendar, so choose early.
Requirement 2 needs numbers
Requirement 2 asks for the annual acres burned by wildfire in the United States for each of the past three years, alongside six kinds of harm. Those figures are published nationally each year; find them before the discussion rather than during it.
It was a Test Lab badge
Wildland Fire Management was trialled in the Merit Badge Test Lab before it became an official merit badge in July 2026. The Test Lab page says a Scout who completed a Test Lab badge that becomes official is credited with having earned it. If you did the Test Lab version, ask your unit leader how that is being recorded. If you are starting now, work from the official page: the Test Lab requirements are not the ones in force.
There is no pamphlet
The Hub links a Digital Resource Guide instead, and most requirements on the official page list free videos and websites directly under them.
What this page is
The Wildland Fire Management merit badge, drawn so the three parts that need arranging stand out from the discussions around them. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.
Sources for this page
- Wildland Fire Management Merit Badge Requirements, Merit Badge Hub, last modified 2026-07-22 · The requirements themselves, and the Digital Resource Guide linked from them.
- Merit Badge Test Lab · Credit for Scouts who completed the Test Lab version before the badge became official.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 7.0.0.3 · The process every merit badge is earned through, which this page does not repeat.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 7.0.4.3 · Which version of a changed requirement applies to a Scout who has already started.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 4.0.0.1 · Why the requirements are not in the Guide to Advancement and are expected to change annually.
Last checked against its sources on .