Northern Rockies Coordinating Group - Fire Prevention & Education Committee
Spring Meeting Conference Call Notes
March 19, 2012 – 0900 - 1230
Attendance:
Terina Mullen – BLM – Western District
Neal Beetch – FWS
Kathy Bushnell – USFS – Helena NF
Harry Steele – IDL/Idaho Firewise
Chris “CJ” Johnson – USFS – Lolo NF
Pat Cross – MT DNRC
Lisa Osborn – USFS – Kootenai NF
Marianne Baumberger – USFS – Gallatin NF
Ken Bixby – Rocky Mountain BIA
Zone & Agency Reports
Jennifer Mayberry – FireSafe MT
David Mosher – USFS – Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF
Sandy Groth – USFS – Idaho Panhandle NF
Cathy Scofield – USFS – Regional Office – R1
Crystal Hagerman – MSU Extension
Ivy Dickenson – Idaho Firewise
Pat McKelvey – Lewis & Clark County
Karly (Krausz) DeMars – BLM – Central/HiLine Districts
∗ Southwest Montana – CJ
 Meeting with Zone reps – talked about ideas and funding to do projects
∗ South Central Montana – Marianne
 Forest Service changed forest plan amendment and can manage fires outside the wilderness
∗ North Idaho – Sandy
 Gearing up for school programs
 Have secured a large grant for a safety day in Kellogg area in May
 They are continuing to do similar work/projects as in the past
 Spokane Indians game with Idaho DNR
 Idaho firewise “don’t be a gooberith” campaign - $33K possible grant to do PSA’s targeting homeowners
∗ Northwest Montana – Lisa
 FireSafe Council trailer in the works
 Summer camp plans under way for Lincoln County students; they are looking at offering the camp to students from all over the country in the future
∗ Central Montana – Pat McKelvey
 Had an “All-hands” meeting recently
 This zone is trying to establish some reconnection from representatives in the zone
 Pat is working to reinvigorate the zone
∗ Eastern Montana – Karly
 Wildfire Education Day coming up on May 15
 Montana/Dakotas BLM has a new Mitigation/Education specialist for the Miles City and Billings areas. She will arrive in early April.
∗ Idaho Department of Land/Idaho Firewise – Harry Steele
 New executive director of Idaho Firewise – Ivy Dickenson
 New Fire Bureau Chief of IDL – Ken Ockfen
 Idaho Firewise moves forward with BLM to promote prevention coops and project learning tree programs
∗ U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – Neal Beetch
 The FWS is currently not filling/hiring to fill prevention positions; Neal is still the contact for our committee
 Crews are working on prep work and black lining for prescribed fires. They are also finalizing targets.
∗ Bureau of Indian Affairs – Ken Bixby
 Have hired a Prevention Specialist at Crow Agency
 Are advertising to fill David Peters job
∗ Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation – Pat Cross

 Working on tallying the votes for the Keep Montana Green poster contest. This year they did an online voting program. They will select the top 3 from each category
 Billboards and TV spots are being produced for the upcoming year
 Wildfire Awareness Week – statewide, still waiting to hear on dates
 Smokejumper bobble-head night on June 29
∗ Helena National Forest – Kathy Bushnell
 Working to get Fire Ecology information into community outreach efforts
 Also working on informing the public of fire behavior in forests hit by Mountain Pine Beetle
 Also mentioned the AD council Smokey Bear campaign – is anyone hearing these radio ads?
∗ FireSafe Montana – Jennifer Mayberry
 Still promoting mini-conference series
 Miles City – March 31
 Polson – April 9
 The conference in Columbus on March 10 – went really well. Had about 60 participants
Old Business – orange = action items
• 2012 Media Campaign/Outreach – Pat Cross
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The Artwork is done, PSA’s are written
 Marianne suggested that she had some concerns with the way the PSA’s are written and volunteered to rework them. CJ volunteered to help and they will get these out to the committee by
April 15.
• Glove Campaign – Harry Steele
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Went through the Northern Safety Catalog this year – had some complaints that the color was too bright; so they bought leather palm gloves. Please contact Harry for ordering information.
• NR Conference Sub-committee Update
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Committee members: Marianne Baumberger, Lisa Osborn, Traci Weaver, Cindy Super, Jennifer Mayberry
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See forwarded committee notes (emailed on 3/19/2012)
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The sub-committee talked about developing a website for to post our committee happenings and products.
They have looked at using the NRCG Board website and have talked to Kitty Ortman. DNRC could also host a website, if needed. The only drawback of having a website is that we need someone to manage the site.
 The sub-committee asked if the committee wants to pursue this option. (I am not sure what was decided)
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Conference Planning
 Harry Steele reported that Idaho will host a conference in April 2013. There will be a conference planning meeting April 23-24 in Boise to look at venues and locations. The committee is hoping to design the conference to be relevant to allow folks to travel. They are thinking of incorporating trainings and prevention team member assignment opportunities.
 Harry asked what locations our committee would like to see: we suggested Eastern Idaho (Idaho
Falls, Boise or Pocatello)
 See minutes emailed on 3/19/2012 for meeting notes from the GB planning committee.
 Conference 2014/2015: Our committee will wait and revisit this topic at the fall meeting .
• Newsletter
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No newsletter, had trouble getting folks to submit articles
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We plan to produce a fall newsletter to showcase our work over the summer
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Each zone representative will need to have their articles together prior to our fall meeting in October
New Business
• 2012 Fire Restrictions – Cathy Scofield o
In process of moving from UM server to federal server

o
The system has been updated – it will be user interactive – coordinators will be able to go in and add/remove administrative units o
There will be a new splash page (it will also be more user friendly) o
Cathy has been working with the programmers to establish permissions and overlap o
Cathy will send information out to area coordinators, alternates, media coordinators, and media alternates regarding upcoming webinars and trainings on the new site – the deadline for this will be the end of April/1 st part of May o
One-on-one training will also be available o
Restrictions – guidelines
 Montana code annotated wording will need to be updated
 There are a few minor changes
 Stages & exemptions are still valid for 2012 o
Other information
 Pat Cross mentioned that there has been turn over in county level for restrictions process – will need to analyze training needs in light of organizational changes
 Cathy S. will send a note to zones to get updated list of coordinators and alternates in April
 Each zone needs to have coordinators, alternates and media folks outlined and onboard
 A user guide for the new website will be forthcoming – once the site is up and running
 The programmers are USFS employees in pacific northwest
• 2012 Prevention/Education Workshop – Great Basin (see notes above – Conference Planning)
• Prevention Team Update & Organization – Sandy Groth o
NR team was on call February 21-March 5 – there was a team in place and ready to go o
Next up: May 15-28 – will be sending out an outreach notice to fill the team o
There will be a team leader course on June 4-7 th in Alamos, CO o
We are still in need of team leaders and members o
Sandy stressed that folks need to actually be available and ready to go when they commit to the team and assignment. o
Someone suggested having a prevention team meeting during the IMT spring meetings. Sandy will work on organizing this
• NRCG Bard Meeting Report o
Gave an overview of notes from Predictive Services presentation o
There are educational brochures available from the FWS – please send Karly your order, as she will consolidate the order and send it in.
• FireSafe Montana Mini-Conferences (see notes above in the Zone/Agency Reports)
• Idaho Firewise o
Co-sponsoring GB/NR Fire Prevention & Education Conference o
Working with the Idaho Fire Plan Working Group
• Prevention/Education/Information Trainings in Region o
Crystal Hagerman & Jennifer Mayberry expressed interest in attending the P101 course, and would like to be a prevention team member (if you hear of any course available, please let them know) o
Home Ignition Zone training in Boise on April 2 & 3 – contact Jerry McAdams with Boise Fire Department if interested o
End of June – Home Ignition Zone training in Cooke City
• Burn Permits: Smoke Management or Fire Danger o
CJ started this topic by bringing up the issue that his forest is not issuing burn permits in Missoula County because of the online burn permit system the county has implemented. The Lolo NF is still issuing permits in Sanders County though. His question is: how does the FS fit in with other counties who have gone to the electronic permitting system? o
Marianne shared that Gallatin County has been selling the permits for several years online, but the public can still purchase permits at the county courthouse

 Marianne also reported that the online permitting system has been very helpful in alleviating firefighting crews rolling on false alarm/permitted fires
 She also mentioned that all firefighting agencies have access to the online system to view current permits o
Pat McKelvey spoke about the Helena area. In Lewis & Clark County – the public has to get a DEQ ‘permit to pollute” rather than a burn permit. Pat said he would forward some information on this to the committee . o
Lisa Osborn mentioned that in her area, the FS still sells the burn permits, not the county. o
Idaho is looking at going to the online permit system – Harry also mentioned that by the 2013 fire season – federal agencies would not be issuing burn permits. Is this just for Idaho, or for all states? o
The conclusion of this discussion is that the FS needs to be consistent with our dealings in relation to the burn permitting process.
• Representatives to other Committees o
Our committee needs to look at our impacts on other committees – right now we have representative from the training (Tim Crosmer) and dispatch (Shannon Bonney) committees on our committee o
Are there any other committees that we need to be on?
• Living with Wildland Fire on the Prairie brochures o
Send order to Karly by Wednesday, March 28
• Charter Update o
We will revisit this at our fall meeting
• Committee Chair Rotation o
The next chair according to our charter would be North Dakota. Due to staffing levels, North Dakota will not be able to take on this task o
The Central Montana Zone is next on the list, so Pat McKelvey will be taking on duties as the chair this fall
• Date for Next Meeting o
The group decided to mark our calendars for our fall meeting during the call. October 15-16 in Helena will be the fall meeting dates (tentatively). Zone representatives need to submit their zone articles for the newsletter prior to this meeting.
 Fall Agenda Items o
Accomplishment Newsletter o
Charter Update o
Conference Planning