Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy

Northeast Region
Wildland fire in NJ 2014
Resilient Landscapes - Fire Adapted Communities - Safe and Effective Wildfire Response 
The Northeast Regional Strategy Committee provides executive leadership, coordination and guidance for implementation of the Northeast Regional Action Plan while providing a forum for members to recommend and guide joint strategic direction on fire and land management activities. The NE RSC continues to collaboratively support, recognize and assist the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy goals and implementation efforts.

NE RSC Chair: Brad Simpkins, New Hampshire State Forester
In This Issue
Training Opportunities
June 4-8, 2014:
Midwest Wildfire Training Academy (MWTA) sponsored by the Big Rivers Forest Fire Management Compact will be held again this year in Jefferson City, MO in conjunction with the University of Missouri Fire and Rescue Training Institute's Annual Summer Fire School.

June 7-13, 2014

West Virginia University will host the eighth annual
Mid-Atlantic Wildfire Training Academy in Morgantown, West Virginia. The academy is presented by the Mid-Atlantic Forest Fire Compact, the West Virginia University Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, and the USDA Forest Service.

 

More details here.

Quick Links

Fire Adapted Communities Coalition
 
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April 2014

New Online Resource for Fire Adapted Community Practitioners

 Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network

The Watershed Research and Training Center and The Nature Conservancy are pleased to announce the launch of a new online resource for those working to help communities live safely with wildland fire: the Fire Adapted Communities (FAC) Learning Network blog www.FACNetwork.org.

 

The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network encourages the development and sharing of best practices and innovations in order to accelerate the adoption of fire adapted community concepts nationwide. The FAC Learning Network supports hub organizations and pilot communities across the country that have committed to implementing, assessing and sharing the work that they are doing to increase their communities' resilience to wildfire. The Network included eight hubs and pilot communities in 2013; ten additional hubs and pilots were recently announced - visit our blog to see where they are.

 

The purpose of the blog is to enhance networking and dialogue, and increase the sharing of lessons and innovations related to community wildfire resilience. The blog will foster a community of practice composed of local leaders, firefighters, land managers, business owners and others who are applying fire adapted community concepts.

 

FAC practitioners are encouraged to visit www.FACNetwork.org and sign up for e-mail updates, learn about FAC Learning Network participants and activities, and contribute to online discussions.

 

What is a Fire Adapted Community?

A fire adapted community acknowledges and takes responsibility for its wildfire risk, and implements appropriate actions at all levels. Actions address resident safety, homes, neighborhoods, businesses and infrastructure, forests, parks, open spaces and other community assets. Every community has a unique set of circumstances and capacities, so the kinds of actions they take will vary. Further, there is no end-point in becoming a fire adapted community. Sustaining, growing and adapting strategies, partnerships and capacity through time are key. To learn about related FAC efforts and tools, visit www.fireadapted.org and www.iafc.org/fac or contact a member of the FAC Coalition.

 
FAC Learning Network Blog Contact:
 
2014 Quadrennial Fire Review (QFR) Open for Comments

The 2014 Quadrennial Fire Review (QFR) Crowdsourcing effort has begun taking comments.  The site is available for stakeholders to share forward-thinking ideas about the future of wildland fire management-looking out 10 to 20 years what will our greatest challenges be?  Many of you have been an important partner in the Cohesive Strategy and understand that the challenges we face in managing wildland fire across our Nation are bigger than any one agency or organization can handle alone.  For the 2014 Quadrennial Fire Review we are inviting a broad array of stakeholders and partners to participate in an online dialogue on future challenges, risks, and opportunities regarding wildland fire management.

 

The crowdsourcing effort is a user friendly and efficient way to collect information on specific topics and increase dialogue among diverse groups with an interest in the future of wildland fire management. Recently, you may have received an email introducing this new process; now, we are asking for your help both as a participant and as our partner to help us spread the word regarding the importance of participation by any organization or person with an interest.

 

Crowdsourcing facilitates the sharing of ideas in a virtual way, so stakeholders can post new ideas, and see what others are saying and comment on those ideas at any time of the day! We value the input from all of our stakeholders and partners as their perspective will help us work together to better plan effectively for future challenges. Through your long-standing relationships with many of these stakeholders, you have been privy to their viewpoints; now, is an opportunity to share those perspectives to help build a plan for future challenges.

 

Please assist us in facilitating high participation by sharing the information regarding the QFR Crowdsourcing process with your various networks and partners.

 

The Quadrennial Fire Review site.

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Alliance of Forest Fire Compacts Formed

 

 

Alliance of Forest Fire Compacts
As an initiative started in 2011, the Alliance of Forest Fire Compacts was completed in 2013 when all 8 compacts approved and signed a cooperative working agreement.   There are currently 8 forest fire compacts that include 42 states and all of Canada, except for one province and one territory.   The first forest fire compact was established by federal and state legislation for the Northeast in 1949.  Since then, seven more forest fire compacts have been formed.

 

 

The Alliance was established to form a cohesive and united partnership among the compacts in order to identify, collaborate, and resolve common forest management issues.  The focus of the Alliance is to: 1) share training, 2) share information, lessons learned, and experiences, 3) facilitate the sharing of resources to complement the existing national mobilization systems, and 4) to work on removing legislative, policy, and administrative barriers for sharing resources.  The Alliance will work to provide a coordinated and standardized approach and serve to bring efficiency and effectiveness for interstate and international resource exchanges.

 

The Alliance of Forest Fire Compacts has established officers on a rotating basis such that each compact plays an active role of leadership over time.    A website will be established to facilitate information exchange and a logo adopted in order to communicate with others as an organization. The Alliance will be a key partner for implementation of the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy across the country.

 

Source: Tom Parent, Executive Director, Northeast Forest Fire Protection Compact (NFFPC)

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IBHS Announces Funding To Support Wildfire Preparedness Program For Local Fire Departments

Julie Rochman

Julie Rochman, IBHS president and CEO, announces in Reno, NV that IBHS will be giving funding to support wildfire preparedness program supporting local fire departments.

 

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety  (IBHS) and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) have announced that IBHS will provide additional funding for a grant program that provides small and rural volunteer fire departments with resources to implement the Ready, Set, Go! wildland fire preparedness program.

 

Ready, Set, Go! is a program designed by the IAFC that teaches individuals who live in high-risk wildland fire areas how to best prepare themselves and their properties. IBHS made the announcement about the grant funding in Reno, during the IAFC's Wildland/Urban Interface Conference, which is the largest meeting dedicated to wildland fire issues in the U.S.

 

"The Ready, Set, Go! Program aligns perfectly with IBHS' core mission, which is to identify and promote effective actions that strengthen homes, businesses, and communities against natural disasters and other causes of loss," said Julie Rochman, IBHS president and CEO. "We are very pleased and proud to be partnering with IAFC to make sure this program can continue to be implemented in as many communities as possible."

 

For more information. 
IAFC and IBHS Announce Funding to Support Wildfire Preparedness Program

Fairfax, Va. - The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) have announced that IBHS will provide additional funding for a grant program that provides Ready, Set, Go! (RSG) members with resources to implement the RSG wildland-fire preparedness program.

 

RSG is a program designed by the IAFC that teaches individuals who live in high-risk wildland fire areas how to best prepare themselves and their properties. IBHS announced the grant funding in Reno during the IAFC's Wildland-Urban Interface Conference, the largest meeting dedicated to wildland-fire issues in the U.S.

 

"Budgets are always extremely tight for small volunteer and rural fire departments," Rochman said. "We hope this partnership will lead to more opportunities for the fire services and the property insurance industry to work together to make our communities safer."

 

The grants are administered by the IAFC according to an established set of criteria. Requests are made through a formal, peer-reviewed process to ensure effective use and need. The RSG Program works in complementary and collaborative fashion with the Firewise Communities Program and other existing wildland-fire public-education efforts to amplify their messages.

 

RSG was developed by the IAFC with support from IBHS, the USDA Forest Service, the U.S. Fire Administration, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Firewise Communities Program.

 

For more information about the Ready, Set, Go! Program, visit WildlandFireRSG.org. Find wildfire-preparedness resources.


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2013: A fire season in review

With 2013 now almost two months behind us, the National Interagency Fire Center has released a video summarizing the 2013 fire season.  It's hard to forget what a significant fire season was 2013. To name a few, the Black Forest Fire in Colorado destroyed 486 homes, the most in Colorado history.  The Yarnell Hill Fire tragically took the lives of 19 firefighters and was the worst loss of life for first responders in an incident since 9/11.  The California Rim fire burned over 250,000 acres and over 100 structures.

These fires represent just a small fraction of the 2013 wildfire season.  The video below is a great reminder why it is so important to be Fire Adapted in a Wildland Urban Interface.

Here's hoping 2014 is a little more forgiving. See the video.

Source: NFPA newsletter

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Managing the Habitat (Near Madison, Indiana)

Dan Wood
Dan Wood cuts back toward the road while lighting a path of fire during a controlled burn at Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge on Friday. (Photo by KenRitchie/[email protected])
Fire crews methodically moved across a section of the southwest corner of Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge on Friday as part of a controlled burn. 


Big Oaks typically treats between 10,000 and 14,000 acres of property with the method each year for brush control, which reduces the fuel that could feed wildfires.

The burns also help to manage the habitat for the Henslow Sparrow and the Crawfish Frog and other wildlife. The prescribed burn season continues through mid-April.

The prescribed burns only are conducted when refuge director Joe Robb and refuge fire management officer Brian Winters determine that the conditions, including wind speed and humidity, are safe for implementation.
Ben Walker
Refuge biologist Ben Walker directs a crew to the next area to light during the prescribed burn Friday. (Photo by Ken Ritchie/[email protected])
Source: The Madison Courier (provided by Dan Dearborn, US F&WS) 

IAFC WUI Conference Highlights the Cohesive Strategy

The recently concluded WUI Conference held March 17-19, 2014 in Reno, NV was a great success by bringing together leaders from the local, state and federal levels to collaborate against the fastest growing fire threat in the world-the wildland/urban interface.

 

Highlights from this year's conference included a key note presentation by author John Maclean with insights and stories about the dangers and challenges of wildfire in the WUI using the recent tragedies of Yarnell Hill in AZ and the Esperanza Fire in CA as dramatic examples. The Yarnell Hill Serious Accident Review Report was also presented in detail by Jim Karels, Florida Forest Service, Serious Accident Investigation Team Leader.

 

A number of Cohesive Strategy sessions were presented including a panel of the national and regional strategy committee representatives that included Jim Douglas, DOI, Director of the Office of Wildland Fire; Ann Walker, Western Regional Strategy Committee Co-chair, Mike Zupko, Southern Regional Strategy Committee Chair/Coordinator; and Larry Mastic, Northeast Regional Strategy Committee Coordinator. 

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Publications: How to Create a Fire Adapted Home

Download the free IBHS Guide to Creating Fire Adapted Home 

Publication-Creating A Fire Adapted Home

 

This workbook identifies the most vulnerable parts of a home during a wildfire based on the latest building science research. It also outlines solutions for reducing the risk of damage.

 

� 2012 Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety

  

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