The Cohesive Strategy for the Northeast U.S.Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors

Meeting - June 2015

The Cohesive Strategy Organization

Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC)

Northeast RSC

West RSC

Southeast RSC

National Strategy Committee (NSC)

WFLC has Re-chartered the RSCs• The NE RSC is a committee established by the

WFLC to exchange views, information, and advice relating to the strategic management and implementation of regional wildland fire and land management programs to include federal, tribal, state, local, and non-governmental organizations.

WFLC has Re-chartered the RSCs

Northeast RSC

(Includes NE Senior Leaders Group)

Technical Working Group

Communications Working Group

Northeast Regional Strategy Committee• U.S. Department of Agriculture

• U.S. Forest Service – Eastern Region• U.S. Forest Service - Northeastern Area State & Private Forestry

• U.S. Department of the Interior• Bureau of Indian Affairs • Fish and Wildlife Service • National Park Service

• Intertribal Timber Council • National Association of Counties (NACO) • NAASF State Forester/Liaison to NFFS (Chair)• Northeast Regional Compacts• International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC)• The Nature Conservancy (TNC)• Dovetail Partners, Inc.• Lake States and North Atlantic Fire Consortiums

Why should you care about

implementing the Cohesive Strategy?

Thousands Flee New Jersey Wildfire Ignited by Flare From F-16

Flames spread near the border of Ocean and Burlington Counties Tuesday.By ALAN FEUER and RICHARD G. JONES, Published: May 16, 2007

Risks from Event-created Fuels

Blowdown in Wisconsin Superstorm Sandy in West Virginia

Are we doing enough to restore our landscapes and fire dependent ecosystems?

Are NE and MW communities in the higher fire risk areas prepared?

Is our wildfire response capability and capacity sufficient?

Three WFLC Priorities for 2015-20161. Promote landscape scale land management

activities that address the creation and maintenance of resilient landscapes.

2. Support stakeholders and the public to actively plan, create and maintain fire adapted communities and landscapes and assist local jurisdictions to reduce risk to communities from wildfire.

3. Maximize the collective synergy of federal, tribal, state, local and private response resources.

Key Implementation Actions - Priority 1:• Develop a national clearinghouse for funding of collaborative

landscape projects• Evaluate NEPA and define opportunities for reducing hurdles

locally• Evaluate inconsistencies in implementation of air quality

regulations with state air quality regulators, EPA, WFLC and other state partners

• Support the alignment of business rules and practices for agencies

• Conduct an evaluation of collaborative agreements with state, local and NGO partners to focus on build best land management practices

Key Implementation Actions – Priority 2:• Create incentives for construction of local FAC citizen

coalitions.• Work directly with/support the national FAC Network• Utilize targeted federal assistance matched with communities

who show a willingness to engage• Build jointly funded FAC programs to promote CS goals• Link activities to the national CS communications framework• Enhance joint communication messaging to the public

Key Implementation Actions – Priority 3:• Evaluate wildfire risk across the country then map where risk

has been reduced or increased because of fire.• Support the alignment of business rules and practices for

agencies • Conduct an evaluation of collaborative agreements with

state, local and NGO partners to focus on build best response practices

• Expand the use of fire as a management tool

What can the WFLC do to assist the Northeast Wildland Fire Management partners?

• Issue agency guidance to facilitate program and budget integration as an inter-agency priority (strategic and program alignment)

• Recruit and dedicate needed agency support resources (including from the Regions), and regularly track and report progress.

• Help the Regions and field level organizations by clearly articulating the value of the CS as not just another “fire” initiative, but a new way of doing business

• Increase the flexibility in grant requirements to address State and local capacity constraints

What can the WFLC do to assist the Northeast Wildland Fire Management partners? (continued)

• Increase support of fire prevention and fire adapted community planning activities

• Increase the support for Compacts by addressing specific coordination barriers

• Simplify international border crossings and resource exchanges between the US and Canada

• Develop a national template for Cooperative Agreements that work for all areas of the country

What are some important actions the NE Region could take to address the 3 WFLC priorities?• Convene regional leaders to identify priority landscapes

• Use current collective planning resources to identify landscapes, set priorities, and identify projects

• Use the NE RSC to communicate and coordinate among CS partners.

• Encourage WFLC to issue guidance to facilitate program integration as an inter-agency priority (program alignment)

• Share successes (collaborative efforts, projects, grants, community actions)

NE RSC LANDFIRE Task Group Report • Maureen Brooks: NA Cooperative Fire Specialist• Quinn Chavez: FS GIS Specialist, Northeastern Area• Terry Gallagher: R9 Regional Fuels Program Manager • Jed Meunier: Research Ecologist• Randy Swaty: Ecologist, TNC • Jerry Szymaniak: Midwest Regional Fire Planner, USFWS

Recommendation: Form a Northeast LANDFIRE Coordinating Group

Goals

1. Increase the quantity and quality of feedback to the LANDFIRE Program

2. Increase appropriate use of the LANDFIRE products

Organization Vision (Stakeholder representation: Natural Resource stakeholders, Focused on User Needs, Landscape scale)

• Coordinator• GIS analyst• Fire/ fuels analyst• Ecosystem SME/Ecologist/Fire Ecologist• Communication/Outreach Coordinator (User outreach, data needs, product changes based on input)

*Funding a dedicated workforce (even if it is a pilot) will be necessary. Anticipate an agreement will be developed.

NE RSC LANDFIRE Task Group Report

Where are the best Northeast US opportunities to restore fire dependent ecosystems?

Share Successes• Missouri Pine-Oak Woodlands Restoration Project• Minnesota Moose Habitat Collaborative • Mashpee Collaborative on Cape Cod, MA• Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership in NY• And many more…

Prescribed burn conducted at the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center (NCTC)

Over 20 firefighters came from: • NCTC • USFWS Northeast Region Fire

Management • Pennsylvania Bureau of

Forestry • West Virginia Division of

Forestry • The Nature Conservancy

(TNC) of Maryland• AmeriCorps National Civilian

Community Corps

Phil Bietsch - Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry

The 2007 Warren Grove Wildfire (15,000 acres) moves toward Barnegat. View from Rt. 72 in Barnegat Township. Photo credit: Greg McLaughlin.

Partners Include: • Barnegat Volunteer Fire

Company No. 1• military representatives• New Jersey Forest Fire Service• the Pinelands Commission• U.S. Forest Service • county municipal officials • Rutgers University• International Association of

Fire Chiefs’ Ready, Set, Go!• NJ Office of Emergency

Management (OEM)• volunteer fire companies• Mercer County Soil

Conservation District

Firewise in the New Jersey Pine Barrens: Barnegat Township’s Community Approach

Highway 1 Fire Ely, MN May 2012

The Forest Service coordinated the response with partner agencies of the Minnesota Incident Command System (MNICS) including the local law enforcement, St. Louis County Sheriff. Ely and Morse Township fire departments were part of the initial attack engine group.

Highway 1 Fire - Ely, MN May 2012

Alliance of Forest Fire Compacts

Northeastern Area’s Support Through SFA and VFA Funding

• Core SFA and VFA Funds Supporting the Cohesive Strategy at the state level• Core SFA and VFA funds to the Forest Fire Compacts Supporting at the sub-regional level• Competitive Wildfire Risk Reduction Grant Process Targeting Resilient Landscapes and Fire Adapted Communities• Competitive Special Project Grant Process Targeting Wildfire Response

DISCUSSION: How can the NE fire management partners lead project implementation on priority landscapes?

• What keeps you from working with other fire partners in your states or other programs within your agencies?

• How would you change this? What are those things that you have wanted to do?

• How can you use the CS to do what you want or need?

• Are you involved in your State’s Landscape Scale Restoration initiatives? If not, why not? What would it take to be a part of a LSR?

www.forestsandrangelands.gov

The National Website www.forestandrangelands.gov