These proceedings summarize the results of a symposium designed to address current issues of agencies with wild land fire protection responsibility at the federal and state levels in the United States as well as agencies in the international community. The topics discussed at the symposium included climate change and wild land fire: reality or illusion, theory and models for strategic fire planning, economic analysis and integrated wildlife fire management, forest fires and sustainable forest management, public policies and the wildlife fire management problem, hazardous fuels treatment, wild land fire and fire suspension activities: reduction or contribution to green house gasses emissions, a poster session presenting examples of fire management plans and strategic fire resource allocation, and a final round table on climate change and mega fires discussing and exploring potential solutions.