Wildland Fire Leadership Council Meetings

Wildland Fire Leadership Council Meeting
June 4, 2002

Attendees

Participants in the WFLC

Letters of Invitation will be formalized and distributed to the Intertribal Timber Council, National Association of Counties, National Governors Association, and National Association of State Foresters.

Business Processes and Protocols

• Staffing for WFLC - The DOI Office of Wildland Fire Coordination and FS - NFP Coordination Office will provide staff support for the WFLC.
  
• Materials including agenda and briefing materials are to be distributed to the WFLC 2 weeks prior to the meeting.
  
• Meeting notes will be posted on the Fireplan.gov website after a review period.
  
• Alternates-With proper scheduling and planning, every attempt should be made to attend in person. If it is not possible to attend in person then: 1) every attempt would be made to telephone in to the meeting or 2) a prior designated stand-in would attend. A designate is welcome to attend a meeting if the main participant is telephoning into the meeting.
  
• Decision-making will be done through a consensus process. As a last resort, if a decision cannot be reached by WFLC then the issue will be presented to the Department Undersecretaries for decision.

Meeting Schedule

• July 11th, 0800 - 1200 Washington DC - Emphasis on Implementation Plan
  
• September 5th or 6th Denver, CO - Emphasis on FY03 Collaborative Fuels Project List
  
• January (2nd Week) AZ - National Fire Plan Conference
  
• April - Review Mid-year Accomplishment

10-year Implementation Tasks

• The WFLC identified agency leads for tasks associated with the 10-year Implementation Plan. A copy of the final task list is attached to these minutes.
  
• It was decided that the agency leads for each task would develop an action plan for each task. The action plan would be presented and discussed at the July WFLC meeting.

Finalizing the Cohesive Strategy

It was discussed that Mark Beighley, Peter Teensma and Tim Sexton have been collaboratively working on the Interagency Cohesive Strategy for well over 1 year. It was decided that:

• References to funding will be removed
  
• Alternative options will be removed
  
• The effects bar-graph will be based on the 02 funding level with inflation.
  
• It will be consistent with the 10-year Implementation Plan
  
• It will contain references to value added commercial activities

It was decided that a final document would be completed by July 11. In order to complete the document, full commitment of Mark Beighley, Peter Teensma, and Tim Sexton would need to be established. Dave Tenny and Brian Waidmann will work with OMB to facilitate clearance.

Fire Management Planning

• The Interagency Fire Management Plan template was reviewed.
  
• It was decided that the template would be adopted after a sentence is added to reflect the concept of fire management planning is to be done across agency boundaries.

Landscape Fuels Treatment

• A briefing paper describing an opportunity to develop best management practices (BMP's) for restoring ponderosa pine ecosystems and have them reviewed for scientific credibility was presented to the group.

Communications

Department of the Interior indicated a desire to increase communications for the National Fire Plan, focusing on specifically on communities. Action items include:

• An assessment of NIFC messages related to the National Fire Plan and 10-year Implementation Plan. Provide NIFC PAO's with messages that describe what people can do to protect their homes and messages about the importance of fuels treatments to minimize risk.
  
• Develop a proactive message to distribute to the communities-at-risk regarding what they can do to reduce the risk from wildfire.
  
• Finalize a communications plan for working with communities in regards to National Fire Plan implementation.
  
• Develop a communications plan specifically for the WFLC and begin implementation of the Plan, including press releases and direct contact with Partners.

Heidi Valetkevitch of the Department of Agriculture will work with E.Lynn Burkett of the Department of the Interior.

A phone call was made to the Fire Directors at NIFC to assess resource availability and inquire about fire season issues that may need to address by the WFLC.