Wildland Fire Leadership Council Meetings

Wildland Fire Leadership Council Meeting
Red Lodge, Montana
June 19-20, 2007
Meeting Summary, Agreements, and Actions

Members and Designated Representatives in Attendance

Gail Kimbell, Nina Rose Hatfield, Julie Jacobson, Melissa Simpson, Karen Taylor-Goodrich, Ken Stansell, Henri Bisson, Arch Wells, Robert Doyle, Charlie Dickinson, Jim Erickson, Lori Faeth, Jeff Jahnke, Jim Wattenburger, Harris Gabrian, Tom Kuntz, Rick Prausa, Mark Beighley.

New Members

The Chair introduced new Council member Harris Gabrian of Red Lodge Fire District #7. Mr. Gabrian introduced Red Lodge Fire Chief Tom Kuntz as his designated representative.

Citizen Stakeholder Input

Carol Daley: Collaboration, education, and training are essential for accomplishment of 10 Year Implementation Plan.

Anne Walker: Resolution of forest health issues requires collaborative efforts by government, businesses, and public. Technological collaboration is an important key to success. After the meeting, Anne provided this link to information about a 2006 Insurance Wildfire Summit:

http://egov.oregon.gov/ODF/FIRE/docs/PREV/InsuranceWildfireSummitt.pdf

Jay O’Laughlin: Risk assessment should be built into project planning and decision-making process.

Paige Lewis: The updated 10 Year Implementation Plan (TYIP) brings renewed emphasis on collaboration and community assistance. The TYIP provides an effective framework for tracking implementation; WFLC leadership should continue to move forward with TYIP implementation.

Southern Wildland Fires

Mike Zupko representing the Southern Group of State Foresters outlined challenges, successes, and opportunities presented by the recent wildfires in the southern states. See Mike’s presentation slides:

Southern Fire Season 2007 - (PDF, 4.3 MB)

Fire Learning Network

Laura McCarthy, The Nature Conservancy, summarized lessons learned from the Fire Learning Network that can help with the 10 Year Implementation Plan. See Laura’s presentation slides:

Lessons Learned from the Fire Learning Network Model: Restoring Forest Health Landscape by Landscape - (PDF, 0.9 MB)

LANDFIRE

Jim Douglas, Bureau of Land Management, on behalf of the interagency LANDFIRE executive oversight committee, provided an update on activities and a proposed approach for developing a LANDFIRE operations and maintenance plan. See Jim’s presentation slides:

LANDFIRE: Project Status - (PDF, 0.5 MB)

LANDFIRE Actions and Agreements

In response to a question from the Council, Douglas will report to on how land ownership data is incorporated in LANDFIRE by October 2007.

The LANDFIRE executive oversight committee and LANDFIRE team will develop a detailed proposal for LANDFIRE long-term operations and maintenance at the October 2007 WFLC meeting. The plan will address integration with other resource programs and identify potential funding for updating data in LANDFIRE. The operations and maintenance budget can then be reflected in each Department’s future budget requests.

WFLC Memorandum of Understanding

MOU Actions and Agreements

The Council reaffirmed its consensus and agreement on the draft MOU. WFLC staff was directed to prepare the current version for review and approval by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture. The draft is subject to final review by legal counsel of the two Secretaries. Current text:

DRAFT Memorandum of Understanding Wildland Fire Leadership Council, June 18, 2007 (PDF, 40 KB)

10 Year Implementation Plan (TYIP)

TYIP Actions and Agreements

Council members were provided a table of TYIP actions and were requested to provide Larry Lesko with names of people to serve on the implementation teams by June 29, 2007.

Monitoring and Wldfire Reporting

Members and stakeholders urged the Council to address the need to standardize wildfire-reporting systems to enhance coordination and evaluation of wildfire management.

Long-term Threats, Challenges and Opportunities for Wildland Fire Management

The Council listened to four presentations on driving forces that are likely to shape wildland fire management over the next 20 to 30 years. Rick Prausa and Jim Douglas set the stage for the discussion. See their presentation:

Threats, Challenges, and Opportunities: Taking the Long-Term Perspective for Wildland Fire Management - (PDF, 40 KB)

Drought and Climate Variation

Faith Ann Heinsch, University of Montana set the stage with a presentation on "Implications of climate change for drought and wildfire." See Faith Ann’s presentation:

Implications of Climate Change for Drought and Wildfire - (PDF, 3.0 MB)

Vegetation Changes and Fuel Conditions

Ron Neilson, USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station, presented "Climate change, uncertainty and forecasts of global to landscape ecosystem dynamics." See Ron’s presentation:

Climate Change, Uncertainty and Forecasts of Global to Landscape Ecosystem Dynamics - (PDF, 2.3 MB)

Demographics in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)

Susan Stewart, USFS Northern Research Station, presented "Demographic growth and change in the wildland urban interface." See Sue’s presentation:

Demographic Growth and Change in the Wildland Urban Interface - (PDF, 4.1 MB)

Public Expectations

Greg Aplet of The Wilderness Society, and Laura McCarthy of The Nature Conservancy, presented "Public expectations in 20-30 years: More of the same or can we shape public opinion?" Their presentation:

Public Expectations in 20-30 Years: More of the Sameor Can We Shape Public Opinion? - (PDF, 171 KB)

Developing a Long-term Strategy for Wildland Fire Management

Following a panel discussion with the five presenters, Council members identified their visions for long-term ecosystem restoration and maintenance that would better position the various governments and stakeholders for more effective and efficient wildland fire management. These ideas will be used at the next meeting to develop an approach to a long-term strategy.

Transition to New WFLC Chair

Jim Cason, DOI Associate Deputy Secretary (acting as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget) will be the WFLC chair for the year beginning in July 2007. Nancy Guerrero of DOI’s Office of Wildland Fire Coordination will be the primary contact for WFLC meeting logistics during this year.

Upcoming Conference Call and Meetings

July 25, 2007 Conference Call: Fire Program Analysis (FPA)

As agreed during the December 2006 conference call, the FPA team and oversight committee will report on the prototype for FPA Alternative 3 outline the feasibility and estimated cost of adding the large fire probability simulator component to Alternative 3. This information will be presented via briefing papers and discussed on a conference call July 25.

PowerPoint Versions of the Meeting Presentations

The following is a list of the meeting's presentation files in Microsoft PowerPoint format. You will need to have Microsoft PowerPoint or the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer (a free download) installed on your computer to view these files. Some of these files are quite large and may require several minutes to download to your computer.