Northern Rockies
Coordinating Group
Notes from the Spring Meeting
Missoula Technology & Development Center
March 14 – 15, 2011
Attendees (some were via conference phone): Cory Winnie, Kitty Ortman, Bob Gilman, Phil Gill,
Brian Shipplet, Tracey Nimlos, Joli Pavelis, Bob Rebarchik, Ted Mead, Patti Koppenol, Bill Colwell, Bob
Roberts, Kit Kemsley, Maggie Doherty,Tim Murphy, Paul Fieldhouse, Steve Frye, Doug Turman, Bob
Lippincott, Jim Kelton, Sarah Tunge, Jenna Sloan, Tana Fuhrman, Paul Fieldhouse, Bill Avey, Jim Reuter,
Kit Kemsley, Coby Williamson, Tim Reid, Ken Schmid, Greg Archie, Karla Luttrell, Anne Rys-Sikora, Mike
Kreyenhagen, Aitor Bidaburu, Jan Everett, Karly Krause, Don Copple, Cathy Scofield, & Curtis Phelps,
note taker.
Monday March 14, 2011
Zone Updates:
Northwest Montana – Rick Connell
• NWMT Zone Board of Directors has not had our spring meeting yet. We decided to meet after
the NRCG BOD spring meeting.
• NWMT Zone is in the planning phase for a Local Agency Administrator/Line Officer workshop
for this spring. The objective is to have a few scenarios/table top exercises to provide
experience/working knowledge of our operating plans, agreements, cost shares, etc. For the line
officers perspective.
• NWMT Zone is trying to work on our Local Operating Plans, but running in to some stumbling
blocks with different interpretations of some items in the Coop Agreement. We are looking to
NRCG for clarification on these items (specifically #36 in the MT Coop Agreement) so we can
move forward.
• Budgets are starting to impact our workforce especially temporary summer hiring. Not just in
fire, but in all functional areas.
• From the Kootenai NF---EPA was not able to conduct any activity based sampling for work in
wildfire smoke in Rainy Creek last fall. It will probably be another year until we get any risk
assessment information related to smoke and asbestos. The current plan involves sending
samples to North Carolina and burning them in a building to get information.
Eastern Montana – Eric Lepisto
• The BLM, FS (Custer NF), BIA and DNRC are status quo with the exception of the BLM variable
term Single Engine Airtanker (SEAT) contracts which are not online this year. Aviation
Management Directorate (AMD) of the BLM will be utilizing on-call SEATs.
• The USFWS has a significant decrease in their operating budget, which impacts seasonal hires.
• The state of SD has an Air Attack platform that is available for use out of the state, (cost is about
$1500/day and contact is Laverne Hermanson), however the exclusive use SEAT was cut and
replaced with a CWN.
• The Eastern Zone Board has a new ICT 2 - Stan Benes.
NRCG Spring 2011 Meeting Notes
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All the zone Annual Operating Plan (AOP) meetings have been scheduled or have occurred and
plans are out for signatures.
North Idaho - Bob Lippincott
• IDL will have the same resources as the last three years.
• New Idaho Panhandle FMO- Mike Behrens and new AFMO Mike Almas.
• New dispatchers and helicopter manager will be in place within the next couple of months.
• Expecting a low to moderate fire season.
• The Zone will be down 25 positions this year. Expect to fill 14 positions for GS 5 to District FMOs.
• Band Aid this summer will be asking for help from R3.
• We will have 30 Jumpers out of Grangeville this season.
• Nez Perce Tribe will be joining the Grangeville Dispatch Center this year.
Southwest Montana – Kit Kemsley
• Providing oversight for Type II Team.
• New Type II IA Crew hosted at Missoula Dispatch.
• Kit is moving to the Durango Dispatch Center in Colorado by May 1, 2011. There should be a
detailer in Missoula Dispatch in April.
• The Center Manager and the Supervisory Aircraft Dispatcher Position will be vacated soon, and
they are currently in Outreach.
Central Montana – Greg Archie
• Board Meeting take place in April.
• The Helena Division is working on developing new dispatch center. The old one at the Helena
airport was infested with mold, so they had to move out. The new dispatch center will be located
at the Central Land Office.
• Snow pack above average.
South Central Montana – Don Copple
• Board meeting April 6, 2011, so no updates yet.
North Dakota
• No updates
Committee Reports:
Aviation Committee – Maggie Doherty
• Budget continues to be an issue.
• Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs) are no longer available as on-demand contracts, they are only
available as Call-When-Needed.
• The R1 Aviation Maintenance Staff is available if needed.
• Future aviation workshops will emphasize use of the public aircraft worksheet, which will be
updated in the Mob Guide.
• Forest Service regions are working independently on Rappel Programs – the Gallatin is the forest
taking the lead in Region 1.
Business Committee – Joli Pavalis & Tracey Nimlos
• NRCG Interagency Incident Business Handbook Updates should be ready by April 1, 2011.
• Tracey Nimlos and Pam Okon are helping the incident management teams (IMTs) fill finance
related positions.
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Tracey and Pam will address the IMTs during IMT Meeting March 22-24, 2011 in Kalispell.
Debby Wasselius is working on finalizing the Buying Teams staffing.
Procurement WorkshopTraining will be held April 18-21, 2011.
S260 Interagency Incident Business Management and S261 Applied Incident Business
Management are being offered in several zones.
I-Suite for Locals will be May 9-13 in Missoula and the week of May 18, 2011 in Billings.
S460 Finance Section Chief class was held in March 2011, and only 6 students attended it (which
was almost too small). There were no Northern Rockies students, so the Business Committee
will try to recruit more people for Finance related positions- will target young, bright and quick
learners to fill vacancies as people leave their agencies. Send names of people to Tracey if they
are interested in Incident Business Finance.
Fire Cost Management Strategy- (See handout-Contact Kitty for a copy of the Draft) Committee
attempted to make the Northern Rockies’ document work for all agencies. It is currently in draft,
and will be finalized by April 4, 2011. The purpose of this document is to serve as a guideline.
Use as applicable in your own agency. Contact Tracey or Pam with questions or comments.
Equipment Committee – Jim Reuter
• Heavy Equipment Boss Course will be offered April 18-22 and April 25-29 - April 18 class is full
but seats are still available for the April 25 class.
• Pre-Solicitation meeting had a good contractor turn out
• We will be going out with Type III Kitchens again this year.
Fire Program Analysis Committee
• We’re not going away, just growing stronger.
• Continuing with monthly calls.
• Completed annual update to Charter and Operations Plan.
Native American Crew – Bob Roberts
• May be hard to get assistance from ADs; they don’t seem to be sticking around after two slow
years.
• Mobilization has been low for Type II crews, may try to get them to go to Type II IA.
• The New NAC Plan will be posted to the website once finalized - should be end of March.
• 40-50 Type II and Type II IA crews should be available in the Northern Rockies.
Operations Committee – Greg Archie
• The Ops committee met in February and the focus was on team selection.
• We are able to staff 5 Type II Teams, so we are in good shape for the summer.
• Team trailers have two issues - transportation and transition. Once a new team arrives on site,
they usually have two days before their trailers arrive with necessary equipment. We will work
on better transitions between the teams.
• S420 – there was a MT DNRC sponsored session that had a fair number of students but we still
need S420 in the Field.
• We need someone to coordinate S420 in the Field with Paul Fieldhouse retiring because he has
been the main push in coordinating it.
Prevention and Interface Committee – Karly Krause
• The theme for the 2011 Conference is The Good, The Bad and The Necessary - The “Cost of Fire”
and is scheduled for April 19-21 in West Yellowstone. The Conference is $75.00, to register for
the conference go to http://www.firesafemt.org/Events.
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Training Committee – Kitty Ortman and Karla Luttrell
• Karla Luttrell is the new Training Committee Chair.
• S230 Single Resource Boss and 231 Engine Boss classes are being rewritten and in the future
there will be more blended online training, similar to pre-work exercises that other courses have
now.
• S260 Interagency Incident Business Management will have an online course. There is a Beta
Version right now, and once it is approved for use, it could be used as a refresher as well as being
used as a regular course. The Training committee still encourages using trained instructors to
put the course on if at all possible.
• S290 Intermediate Fire Behavior is online now, too - Should be used as a second choice or
refresher - hope to get most students to instructor lead courses.
• Cancellations and attendance are always an issue at the Northern Rockies Training Center.
• Gary Boyd would like to create a mini ACE organization within the Northern Rockies, and
information will be coming out on that when it is approved by the national office.
GIS Layer for NR Zones Task Group – Anne Rys-Sikora
• See Handout - contact Kitty for copy of handout
• Changes- Issues on the North Dakota Border hoping to be resolved soon.
• Liberty County is in Central Zone now.
• All Zones can access data.
• It will be available from Anne and linked from the NRCG website.
National Issues:
Incident Management Organizational Strategic Plan - The NWCG is looking for feedback to assist in
developing a Long Term Implementation Plan. A questionnaire has been posted to the website
http://www.nwcg.gov/imosp/feedback.htm to solicit feedback. This will help build a report to assist
with choosing a final model. We currently have six models to choose from, based on feedback we may
use pieces of each model to develop a final model. Feedback is important at this point to ensure we
come up with the best model possible. We have until April 30 to give feedback.
All Hazard Initiatives - NWCG is in the All Hazard business; it has been for years and will be in the
future.
• What is the NWCG role in the All Hazard environment? NWCG needs doctrine to define its
roles and responsibilities. Need ½ hour on next month’s conference call agenda to discuss
this topic.
• More effective and efficient use of ROSS and IQCS is necessary to help with activation and
mobilization inefficiencies, such as the use of manual reporting systems. DOI positions are
now in ROSS for All Hazard Resources. This will allow DOI to report more efficiently.
• FEMA Qualification System (FQS) - This system is not the same as NIMS more like IQCS
Qualifications but internal to FEMA- this program is still in the draft phase and has
experienced security issues when trying to transfer from FEMA to IQCS. FQS has to make it
the through the pre decisional phase and internal review then it can move forward for public
review.
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FQS has been modeled after the 310-1 and focus on Core Requirements, the discipline a
person is in will determine requirements above Core. Wildland Fire Requirements will meet
FQS and NIMS requirements.
Future FQS studies will be looking at Type I and Type II requirements. We have crews
looking at Core Competencies, Typing of Teams and many other resources such as hospitals
and ambulances. We also have the Incident Management Crew looking at IMT requirements.
NRCG Spring 2011 Meeting Notes
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We now have a Type III All Hazard Association - we have over 100 Type III Teams and one
Team is out every week of the year.
Challenges with incorporating All Hazard Teams:
o Business Management Rules
o Reimbursement Rules
o Administrative Issues
o Logistics
Two back to back slow seasons make it difficult to keep teams trained and ready for
deployment.
Predictive Services Update – Mike Kreyenhagen
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Outlook for 2011 fire season:
o We had a wet Fall
o Record setting snowpack this year
o Late spring, should be relatively wet
o Should see a typically warm summer season, unlike the heat of 2007
o Precipitation is up and drought is about mitigated
o Could see moderate fire season
Look to see most of our assets sent to the South and East to battle wildfires.
If we see some hot temps for a few weeks mid-summer, then all bets are off.
Human Resource Specialist & Critical Incident Stress Management Updates – Jan Everett
HSRP Statistics for 2010:
• 100% resolution of all issues
o Majority of the issues included:
 Civil Rights - 3%
 Early resolution of conflict & Mutual Respect - 17%
 CISM Support - 43%
Past 10 years - 97%-99% resolution rate
HSRP Program:
o Trained and responsive cadre
o Ongoing 98% resolution rate
o Monitors incident and ensures support as needed
• HSRP Contacts provide support to incident personnel involved in serious incidents or
emergencies.
• HSRP program is tailored to the needs of team configurations.
• We will continue to educate and assure Agency Administrators and IMTs of continued
importance and relevance of the HRSP program.
• Post Traumatic Stress Debriefing Events DVD - Contact Jan Everett for distribution.
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CISM is an effective way to get feelings out and work toward dealing with traumatic events.
Critical Stress Peer Teams:
o Peers and clinicians helping members of our fire fighting community get through
stressful events.
o Must have a fire background
o All members are trained and active participants
o Peer team meetings are in the spring and AARs are in the fall
o Agency Administrators have the say when to deploy these teams
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Please contact Jan Everett if you know of anyone interested in being a part of a Peer
Team
NRCC Manager Update – Bill Avey and Bob Gilman
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We ran an outreach last fall, and most respondents were at the GS 11 level
Decided to advertise in the 401 series at the GS 12/13 level
Issues with Human Resources and the qualifications of the candidate pool
Currently in a manual review with SMEs to re-evaluate candidate pool - Bill Avey is trying to get
the results
There will be a three pronged approach:
o Manual Review with SMEs
o Send out another outreach
o NTE Detail would fall under 462 series
The Forest Service has a nationwide issue with the 401 criteria which includes very specific
tasks narrowing the field to those who came up through the fuels programs.
NRCC Assistant Manager:
o Could be onboard as soon as June 1, 2011
o Note: The selection was Judy Heintz from the Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF/Dillon Dispatch
Center.
Mobilization of Local Government Resources - Ted Mead:
The deadline for additions or corrections to current version is April 4, 2011.
MAC Operating Plan - Kitty Ortman:
The deadline for additions or corrections to current version is April 4, 2011.
NRCG Spring 2011 Meeting Notes
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Tuesday March 15, 2011
National Cohesive Strategy Update – Jenna Sloan
Please visit website for complete updates http://www.forestsandrangelands.gov
Please contact Kitty if you would like a copy of the presentation
FLAME Act provides direction and WFLC leads and governs
This is an important collaborative (from the ground up) approach to addressing wild land fire issues.
The Focus is on three key areas:
o Restore and Maintain Landscapes
o Fire Adapted Communities
o Response to Fire
Implemented in three phases:
• Phase I: Complete - Defined focus, scope and purpose - Developed two documents approved
by WFLC and OMB: A National Cohesive Wild Land Fire Management Strategy and the Report
to Congress
• Phase II: September 30, 2011 completion date - Development of Regional Strategies and
Assessments - Identified three regions - Northeast, Southeast and the West to provide
oversight and guidance to other regions as they build their own strategies.
• Phase III: Projected Completion date September 30, 2012 - National Trade-Off Analysis and
Execution- this phase builds off Phase II and will include Regional goals, objectives, and
portfolio of actions and activities used to perform a national-level trade-off risk analysis.
Trade-off risk analysis will inform a national strategy to mitigate wild land fire risks to
communities and landscapes. The completion of phase III will ultimately lead to
Implementation of a National Cohesive Strategy.
Questions from the group:
Q- Jim Kelton: Is Sep 30, 2011 deadline realistic and what is the state of function for the Regional
Committees?
A-Jenna: Not functional yet. Sep. 30, 2011 is a realistic date due to the nature of the project. The
Prototype has been able to identify goals and objectives.
Q-Jim Kelton: How detailed is this strategy?
A-Jenna: 20,000 ft view (broad and general view) .
Q-Bob Roberts: What decisions will come with national trade off?
A-Jenna: Not completely sure, but it is not intended to identify costs. It should articulate to congress
how to reduce risk. How and why we would want to increase prescribed fire. It’s not about trading off
from one region to another, should reflect what action will reduce risk.
Q-Ted Mead: Feel like this is an unknown- how big is this in the west and where do we fit in as far as
State and local Government faced with budget constraints that could limit our involvement?
A-Jenna: Would like one member from each agency to be in the working groups to provide critical
input, we are looking at every avenue to include all agencies.
Q-Ted Mead: Have Science and Analysis Groups been developed?
A-Jenna: 95% complete, not a closed door, all agencies can participate - developed to make
recommendations not decisions. It would be helpful if we had more folks who have worked on socioeconomic teams.
Q-Cory Winnie: Do we need to have sub regional groups?
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A-Jenna: Prefer not to have sub regional groups, if you use sub regional groups they must be able to
meet timelines.
Q-Patti Koppenol: What is the intent of the prototype?
A-Jim Kelton will ask and get back to the group on the intent of the prototype.
Q-Cory Winnie: Do we need to have check points in order to meet the September deadline?
A-Ted Meade: Keep it on the monthly call agenda.
Conclusion of National Cohesive Strategy Topic:
• Broad and General view.
• Uncertain about participation - economy in numbers to reduce work load on any one agency.
• Could mean repackaging what we do.
• Not sure how this will effect us.
• No Action items tasked to the group - Stand by for direction from Regional Committee, work load
will determine participation.
AFD Operating Plan and Budget – Bob Gilman and Tana Fuhrman
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Please see Operating Plan Conditions handout for a complete overview of the proposal.
The handout captured the average of actual costs over the last 10 years.
Agency sponsored - trying to do the least amount of changes necessary.
We would like to have an agreement on how to do business in 2012 by May 2011 so it is ready to
sign in September.
With the current system, we pay tuition at the end of the year.
With the proposed system, we would project costs (see handout), pay all cost up front, eliminate
time spent on the budget throughout the year and we would know how much money we have to
schedule and put on classes.
Q-Ted Mead: Is it more practical to pay as we go in these times of budget cuts versus pay upfront?
Q- How does NRCG cut costs to pay bill?
Q-Jim Kelton: Do we look at NRCC and NRTC separately/differently?
Brian Shipplett - Proposed - put together a workgroup to address the budget cuts and costs of doing
business.
NRCG Budget Work Group will be led by Patti Koppenol with a representative from each agency. Paul
Fieldhouse and Tana Fuhrman will provide assistance to the Workgroup so we can come up with costs
and billing procedures.
List of reps to date:
USFS- Patti Koppenol - Leader
DNRC- John Monzie
IDL- Ken Homick
BLM- Ken Schmid
FWS- Bob Rebarchik
NPS- Tim Reid
BIA- Cory Winnie and Bob Roberts
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State Legislative Updates:
Brian Shipplett –Idaho
Budget Issues - Cut 5% down $750K from FY 2002
Ted Mead - Montana
o 5% reduction across all programs, which affect permanent, seasonal and fire staffs.
o We moved $2 million out of the general fund in an effort to balance the State budget.
o 2 year budget cycle will have an effect on all staff areas - we will be doing more with less.
o There are constituents trying to limit funds spent by the State toward suppression.
o Looks like we will have to change how we operate in the future.
o Kitchen Operations - Contracted resources and DNRC resources.
o Aviation Operations - will not be contracted out
 When state resources are called upon to support federal agencies, the federal
agency must fill out paperwork to show private resources were considered for
requested incident or operation.
Sarah Tunge - North Dakota
Budget is able to be maintained at the current levels.
History of NRCG – Tim Murphy:
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1984- NWCG came up with an initiative to implement the Incident Command System in the
Northern Rockies.
Board Members were decided on: Fire Chiefs, MT DES, Structure and Wild Land Fire
Agencies.
Late 90’s -2000 - Law Enforcement joined the Board
Zoning of Geographic areas changed the way of doing business.
Founding Principles dovetailed with NWCG
Decision Making Exercise:
Bob Gilman provided two hand outs:
• Decision Support Criteria Definitions
• Incident Stakes Summary (ICS - 209)
These handouts assisted us in rating each incident so we could enter our ratings in to a computer
program called Criterium Decision Plus. Criterium Decision Plus is used to accurately rate incidents so
we can better allocate resources and document decisions made while managing resources and incidents.
Zones have been encouraged to use the Criterium Decision Plus Program.
The Organizational Needs Assessment Tool (aka Complexity Analysis) is posted to the NWCG
website:
http://www.nwcg.gov/general/memos/nwcg-042-2010.pdf
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Incident Management Organization Succession Planning (IMOSP) Paul Fieldhouse &
Steve Frye:
They provided a handout on Evolving Incident Management and a PowerPoint presentation
Steve Frye provided three handouts:
a. The results of the NRCG Operations Committee meeting when members were asked 3
questions about a report entitled Evolving Incident Management-an analysis of
organizational models for the future.
b. A draft of the NRCG Operations Committee response to the IMOSP report entitled
Evolving Incident Management.
c. Questionnaire
Paul mentioned Finance Chief Class had six students and Logistic Chief Class had five people.
People are on IMTs because they want to do that type of work.
Paul Fieldhouse (IMOSP)
Paul’s PowerPoint used Presentation can be accessed at http://www.nwcg.gov/imosp/imosp.pdf.
The Handouts can be accessed at http://www.nwcg.gov/imosp/index.htm
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The overall Project Goal of IMOSP and the Evolving Incident Management project is to:
o Facilitate the creation of a sustainable incident management organization that will evolve
and be implemented over the next decade.
The Project Objectives:
o Identify and develop alternative organizational configuration and management oversight
for the management of national wildfire incidents.
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Develop strategic recommendations for interagency implementation of the preferred
alternative. These recommendations will include transition strategies from current to
future incident management organizations.
Overarching principles:
o We need to focus on Long Term and Large Scale Succession Planning.
o A Single Qualification System common to all agencies is the key to success.
o Agency Accountability - Follow-up on identified needs and support from Agency
Leadership.
o Get back to basics - Incident Complexity and Scalable.
o Develop Support Modules by function - use individuals instead of whole teams.
o Responsiveness to Federal Fire Policy - Consistency and Accountability.
o Develop both incentives & accountability for IMT participation
o Ensure Consistency by developing SOPs.
o Support IMT Decisions.
o Interagency Cooperation- Team staffing and oversight of contracted resources.
o Consistent financial practices - Charge Base Salaries to emergency accounts and backfill
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Develop change management strategies for leading the understanding and acceptance by
all stakeholders of the planning process, alternatives and decisions.
Organizational Models:
o We need to use everything we know now but include overarching principles.
NWCG Decisions: NWCG accepted the Report – Final November 19.
Moving forward with inform stage of Stakeholder Engagement.
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Presentations will be made by NWCG Executive Board and project team members.
Involvement and collaboration funded and tasked to Organization Development Enterprise.
Organizational Model developed by June 2011 for implementation based on input from
stakeholders.
• Implementation will start immediately but will take 5-10 years to complete.
• Tools for Engagement:
o Website (http://www.nwcg.gov/imosp/index.htm)
o Organizational Model Matrix
o Descriptions of Organizational Models
o Overarching Principles
o Questionnaire
o Webinars
o Deliberative Workshops
Please see above links for the complete version of Paul’s Presentation.
Steve Frye (IMOSP)
Steve provided the group with three documents:
Document 1 was created to record a group Question and Answer session
The group was broke in to four groups and each group was asked to answer three questions:
Give the top five concepts in the report that made them uncomfortable?
Give the top five concepts that they felt were unclear or confusing?
Give the top five concepts that they felt positive about or thought would add value to IM?
Please see handout for complete results.
Document 2 is in draft form and was created in response to the IMSOP report entitled “Evolving Incident
Management”; An Analysis of Organizational Models for the Future”.
• The contents of this report include: (Please see the draft handout for complete contents)
o Guiding Principles
o Recommendations
o National Perspectives
• The Liaison role received some questions and Steve’s responses were:
o Host unit will provide Liaison to help Agency Administrators & IMTs communicate.
o The Liaison will be assigned and will remain with the team who requested the Liaison.
o We need to define Roles and Responsibilities - Critical Piece to this plan.
o Liaison Concept - Think of intent rather than mechanism.
• Other thoughts and ideas on Liaison Role:
o Liaison term could be confusing, maybe we need to consider renaming it o it is less
confusing?
o The Liaison Topic might be a good one to discuss at the IMT Meetings - Do we present
this plan as a proposal to the teams at the IMT Meetings March 22-24?
o Does the Board agree with the concept?
o How do we proceed with recommendations?
• Need to decide if and when we will be moving forward, if NRCG Board decides to move forward
with succession plan it could influence others to move forward - Board decision would carry a
lot of weight.
Next discussion is scheduled for the April 19, 2011 Conference Call - Most members will have time to
gather feedback by April 19.
Document 3 is a copy of the survey located at: http://www.nwcg.gov/imosp/feedback.htm
End of meeting.
Fall meeting dates to be determined at the April conference call.
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