Strategic Planning Partners brings deep operational experience and interagency insight to wildland fire preparedness.
We work alongside our clients to develop preparedness frameworks that are practical, scalable, and built for the realities of the landscape and the people who manage it. Our approach integrates risk-based analysis, stakeholder engagement, and lessons learned from complex incidents to produce plans that are actionable — not just compliant.
Our preparedness planning services include:
Whether you are starting from scratch or strengthening an existing program, Strategic Planning Partners works with you as a collaborative partner — bringing structure and expertise while honoring the local knowledge and relationships that make preparedness work.
Strategic Planning Partners supports prescribed fire programs that are scientifically grounded, operationally sound, and built to last. We understand that prescribed fire is one of the most effective tools available for restoring fire-adapted landscapes and reducing wildfire risk
We meet our clients where they are — whether building a prescribed fire program from the ground up, working through a backlog of deferred treatments, or navigating the policy and public engagement challenges that often slow program growth. Our consultants bring firsthand experience from the field to every engagement, ensuring the plans we develop reflect what it actually takes to get fire on the ground.
Our prescribed fire planning services include:
The wildland fire environment is generating more data, more tools, and more technology than ever before — from real-time fire behavior modeling and remote sensing to integrated dispatch systems and digital incident management platforms.
We are technology-neutral and vendor-independent, which means our recommendations are always driven by your mission and your people — not by a product.
Our technology integration services include:
Technology should make your people more effective — not add complexity to an already demanding environment. Strategic Planning Partners helps you cut through the noise, make informed investments, and build the organizational systems that allow technology to deliver on its promise in the field.
Wildland fire does not respect jurisdictional boundaries. Effective response — and effective prevention — depends on working together seamlessly, make decisions quickly, and sustain coordination across the full arc of a fire season.
Strategic Planning Partners specializes in helping fire and land management organizations build the coordination frameworks, agreements, and shared cultures that make genuine interagency cooperation possible. We understand the organizational dynamics, competing priorities, and trust-building processes that determine whether interagency systems work when it matters most.
We do not parachute in with a template. We sit down with your partners, listen carefully, and build coordination structures that reflect the real relationships, authorities, and operational realities on your landscape.
Our interagency coordination planning services include:
An organization is only as strong as the people within it. Strategic Planning Partners works with you to design and implement training programs, workforce development strategies, and learning systems that build genuine capability — not just credentials. We bring firsthand experience as practitioners, instructors, and leaders in the wildland fire community to every engagement we support.
Our training resources capabilities include workforce and training needs assessments. We design and deliver leadership development programs tailored to the needs of the organization— from first-line supervisors to executive-level leaders.
We also support workforce succession planning, knowledge transfer and mentorship program design, and after-action learning integration that ensures lessons from the field make their way back into training and organizational improvement.
The best organizations are learning organizations. Strategic Planning Partners helps you build one.
Executive Leader | Operations, Risk & Organizational Resilience
John Thornburg is a senior operations executive with more than three decades of experience leading large‑scale, high‑risk organizations where performance, safety, and public accountability are non‑negotiable. He has spent his career directing complex operations across diverse geographies, managing mission‑critical teams, and advising executive leadership on risk mitigation, crisis response, and organizational readiness.
Throughout his career, John has been entrusted with leadership of enterprise‑level operations spanning hundreds of thousands of acres, multi‑jurisdictional partners, and high‑consequence decision environments. He is recognized for his ability to bring structure, discipline, and clarity to complex systems, aligning strategy with execution while keeping people and safety at the center of every decision.
John’s leadership approach blends operational rigor with strategic foresight. He has guided organizations through emergency events, organizational change, and long‑term planning initiatives—often simultaneously—while maintaining continuity of operations and stakeholder trust. His experience includes directing emergency and aviation operations, overseeing multimillion‑dollar budgets, leading workforce development and succession planning efforts, and implementing risk and resilience strategies that withstand real‑world stress.
A defining strength of John’s career is his ability to operate across boundaries. He has led and unified teams drawn from multiple agencies, disciplines, and cultures, building high‑functioning partnerships among public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders. He is frequently selected to represent organizations at regional and national executive forums, where he contributes to policy development, governance, and cross‑sector coordination.
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