April 2, 1-2 pm ET: Southern Fire Exchange Wildland & Prescribed Fire, Smoke and Emissions Webinar Series
"Basic Smoke Management Practices" (CFE's Applied); Pete Lahm, USFS Fire Weather & Air Quality Specialist. See the web link
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June 2-6: Advanced Minnesota Fire Training Program Presents: The 14th Annual Minnesota Wildfire Academy
In Partnership with MNICS- Minnesota Incident Command System. All wildland fire training presented at the Minnesota Wildfire Academy will meet standards set forth by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG).
The 2014 Minnesota Wildfire Academy will be held at the Itasca Community College 1851 E. Highway 169 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. On line registration
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March 2014
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Northeast Regional Strategy Committee Meets in Milwaukee
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The NE RSC met in Milwaukee WI, February 19-21, 2014 at the US Forest Service Eastern Regional Office to begin the transition from developing the NE regional assessment, analysis, and action plan as part of the National Cohesive Strategy to implementation of the regional action plan. The RSC began identifying priority actions to focus on cooperatively in 2014, discussed how to expand membership, examined the process and tool for tracking progress, and outlined approaches to increase and maintain communications among all CS partners.
Following the business session, the RSC received an informative presentation by Dr. Danny Lee and Matt Hutchins from the National Science and Analysis Team (NSAT) and the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) respectively, on the science and tools developed to support implementation of the National Cohesive Strategy and Action Plan, along with all three Regional Action Plans. The RSC and NSAT then investigated some of the data and maps that have been developed and learned how they could be used to help identify priorities for actions to address wildland ire management issues important to the Northeast.
Participants included: the US Forest Service - Mark Boche, Terry Gallagher, Eastern Region (R9); Owen Martin, Maureen Brooks, Northeastern Area State & Private Forestry (NA); Jim Loach, National Park Service, Dan Dearborn, Glen Stratton, Jerry Szymaniak, US Fish & Wildlife Service; Brad Simpkins (Chair), New Hampshire, Northeast Area Association of State Foresters; Tom Remus, Bureau of Indian Affairs; Steve Olson, Fond du Lac Reservation, Matt Frank, Dovetail Partners; Matt Rollins, US Geological Survey; Erin Darboven, DOI Office of Wildland Fire.
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Quadrennial Fire Review to Begin in March 2014
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Purpose - The purpose of the Quadrennial Fire Review (QFR) is to forecast likely conditions that may present the greatest wildland fire management challenges over the next 10 to 20 years, and set a long-term strategic course of action to address them. The 2014 QFR will focus on completing three main objectives:
- Conduct a thorough review and documentation of actions and outcomes that have occurred as a result of the previous QFRs;
- Identify the most significant long-term wildland fire management challenges by assessing emerging issues and future threats facing the nation; and
- Project future scenarios to highlight areas of consideration for realignment of programs, strategies, capabilities, and the work force that will assist in addressing the identified challenges and threats.
The QFR will set the stage for implementation and future updates of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (CS) and also sets the long-term vision for wildland fire management. The CS is the roadmap to help us achieve that vision.
A contract has been awarded to Booz Allen Hamilton-a company with extensive knowledge and experience in conducting quadrennial reviews for the Department of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security. Booz Allen will assume the majority of the workload involved in the day-to-day development of the QFR and has been tasked to challenge long-held assumptions and encourage provocative, yet realistic, thinking and solutions by executive leadership.
Source: U.S. Forest Service, Sandy Burnett, F&AM
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Minnesota's Statewide Wood Energy Team Launches Programs for 2014
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Funds to be made available to support high efficiency wood energy systems
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St. Paul, MN--Minnesota has a new statewide team for supporting high efficiency wood energy systems. The Minnesota Statewide Wood Energy Team
includes diverse organizations and individuals with expertise to support effective use of wood energy technologies. With support from the USDA Forest Service, the team's 2014 programs include making funds available to support businesses and other facilities that are interested in commercially available wood energy systems.
"Minnesota led the nation in 2007 with the development of sustainable woody biomass harvesting guidelines and we have invested in research at the University of Minnesota to ensure we balance new, renewable energy systems with natural resource protections," said Anna Dirkswager, Biomass Coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and manager of the Statewide Wood Energy Team.
The team has been developed to help Minnesota facilities and businesses move toward realizing the opportunity to cut costs, support local economies, and advance clean energy development.
"Today's wood energy technologies reduce energy costs while creating local jobs, mitigating wildfire risks, and providing renewable energy," said Brian Brashaw, Program Director for the University of Minnesota Duluth, Natural Resources Research Institute and Statewide Wood Energy Team member.
The Minnesota Statewide Wood Energy Team is one of five being supported by the USDA Forest Service around the country. The goal of the Minnesota team is to support commercially available wood energy systems that can provide economic, social, and environmental benefits to Minnesota's businesses and communities.
"We are gearing up to help 20 sites in 2014 with preliminary evaluations and to assist two of those sites with detailed engineering or final feasibility studies," said Lissa Pawlisch, Director of the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) and member of the Statewide Wood Energy Team.
Details about the funding opportunities and application process are forthcoming. Eligibility requirements will include commercial applications of modern wood energy technologies and project development beyond the initial feasibility investigations. For further information, or to be added to the contact list to receive funding information when it becomes available, please contact: Anna Dirkswager, Anna.Dirkswager@state.mn.us.
Source: DOVETAIL PARTNERS, THE OUTLOOK, February 2014
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Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information (Irwin)
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Background: The IRWIN service is a Wildland Fire Information and Technology (WFIT) affiliated investment, intended to provide an "end-to-end" fire reporting capability. IRWIN is tasked with providing data exchange capabilities between existing applications used to manage data related to wildland fire incidents. IRWIN is focused on the goals of reducing redundant data entry, identifying authoritative data sources, and improving the consistency, accuracy, and availability of operational data.
Current Status: Year One Applications: WildCAD, FireCode, ICS209, Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS), and Enterprise Geospatial Portal (EGP) were analyzed and prototyped in FY 2012. Development of the IRWIN service began in FY 2013 and the Year One applications began making necessary modifications. Integrated Fire Management (IFM), a CAD used by the state of Alaska, also joined the Year One team.
During the week of February 3 in Boise, Idaho, the Year One teams participated in Integration Testing. The testing successfully allowed approximately 70 data elements to be entered once, then, dynamically shared across the applications. The test was conducted with business representatives from the Federal, state and local interagency wildland fire community. Testing proved a time savings of 600 percent for dispatchers managing data for federal fires. Further integration testing is planned in February and March of 2014, and IRWIN is on target to go live in the spring of 2014.
Source: INFORMATION BULLETIN (0001-14), February 20, 2014
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Wisconsin Fire Needs Assessment Underway
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Where Should We Burn?
Many of our readers are probably writing burn plans this time of year. Thinking about where to burn, the resources needed, the appropriate weather conditions, and which sites are the highest priorities. But, do you think about how many acres of fire dependent vegetation are in your state? Or how many acres would need to be burned in a given year to maintain the existing prairie and savanna ecosystems? The Consortium is working to address these questions by doing a Fire Needs Assessment, starting with the state of Wisconsin and building on the existing assessment for Michigan
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The Fire Needs Assessment will consider how much fire is needed to maintain the ecological landscape, and where priority areas are located when considering all of the fire dependent vegetation in the state. Our methods can easily be adapted for other states in the region, and we would like to replicate this effort across a wider geographic region in the future.
If you are interested in learning more, check out our Fire Needs Assessment information sheet. We also have an archived presentation about the Michigan Fire Needs Assessment on our Vimeo page.
Better yet, if you will be in the Twin Cities in March for the meeting of the Society for Ecological Restoration Midwest/Great Lakes chapter, Tracy Hmielowski will be giving a presentation on our initial results and would be happy to discuss the project with anyone who is interested.
Source: Fire Science News for the Prairie and Savanna Region; Tallgrass Prairie & Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium, provided by Dan Dearborn, US F&WS
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Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network Comes to Ely, Minnesota
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Fostering fire adapted communities has become a major focus of federal wildland fire and disaster management, and it is one of three primary goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy. The tools that are being promoted through the Fire Adapted Communities program have all been shown to be effective; however, there is much to learn about which combinations of tools are most effective in certain social and ecological contexts, how to best spark communities to action, and how to best support an individual community's efforts to become more fire adapted over time. The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FAC Network) is working with leaders and practitioners from around the country addressing these knowledge gaps.
Though wildfire has not generally been seen as a major threat, changes in climate and departure from the historic fire regime in this fire-dependent ecosystem increasingly necessitate action. Dovetail Partners in northern Minnesota is working with the Superior National Forest to align their FAC strategies with the Forest's program of work. Engagement with local citizens in Ely, as well as with statewide partners such as the Minnesota Firewise group, is helping the team develop its strategy.
Dovetail Partners, an environmental think-tank is serving as the Upper Midwest Coordinator for the Fire Adapted Communities (FAC) Learning Network. The FAC Network is a pilot project funded through the US Forest Service's (USFS) Fire Adapted Communities (FAC) program, which invests in a wide range of partnerships and programs to promote the mitigation of wildfire threats and impacts to communities. They support the Firewise Communities/USA recognition program, Ready, Set, Go!, Community Wildfire Protection Plans, and lead the national Fire Adapted Communities Coalition, among other efforts.
Source: Fire Adapted Communities Coalition; Dovetail Partners
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