In 1949, Congress passed an Act establishing the first regional compact to prevent and control forest fires in the Northeast, the NFFPC 'Compact'. The governing body of the Compact is the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Commission. The member states and provinces are the seven states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York plus the Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland Labrador and the New England National Forests.

The Prevention and Education Working Team was formed by the NFFPC to assess the fire prevention needs within the Compact area. The PEWT provides the 12 member body interagency expertise in areas such as wildland fire prevention, public relations and outreach, fire safety in communities adjacent to wildlands as well as developing safer communities.