Meeting Notes: March 25, 2010
Communication, Prevention and Investigation Working Team
Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group
In Attendance: Esther Hernandez (Washington State Fire Marshal’s Office), Chair; Lauren
Maloney (Bureau of Land Management/US Forest Service – SORO), Vice-Chair; Rod Nichols,
Oregon Department of Forestry; Len Diaz, Bureau of Indian Affairs; Jeree Mills, US Forest
Service – Mt. Hood/SORO; Mark Gray, Washington Department of Natural Resources; Tom
Knappenberger, US Forest Service
Representative Updates & Agenda Review: Jeree – FPA mechanism for entering prevention
activities; cache of Smokey Bear h/o can be ordered/purchased so long as purchasers agree not
to resell, teachers are encouraged to take advantage of this, orders must currently be faxed in
but an e-commerce system is in the works; sign committee developing new prevention signs;
Tom – Developing a list of information officers within the region, Chris Erikson (sp?) from NIMO
would like to assist in the development; working on a 1-2 page document listing the
requirements/qualifications for new IIOs; Lauren – National meeting next week for BLM; there
has been a decrease in grant assistance in the Northwest resulting in a more even distribution
across the US; 3.2M in NFP hazardous fuels reduction grants in the Northwest so the top 9
projects for each state will be funded; Mark – Wildfire Awareness Week proclamation has been
signed, focus will be Dept of Ecology initiative to replace burn barrels with compost bins; new
Firewise community so there is now one in each corner of the state, Union Valley Firewise
community has utilized social media very successfully; Esther – No new State Fire Marshal yet,
hope to have a decision by June 1.
Prevention Working Team Website: The question was raised as to whether we could
substitute the use of social media for the website. WA DNR has used Facebook, Twitter, etc
successfully to share prevention information as well as with Firewise communities. There is an
issue with access by the federal agencies and the WA Fire Marshal’s Office. WA DNR may be
able to use an intern to keep the information updated. General consensus that the website is
very Oregon-centric and that some of the information needs to be updated, i.e., Prevention
Conference information. There is a need to judge our audience and market the site
accordingly. The possibility was raised to have the site linked to NWCC and that maintenance
could be reduced if only static fire prevention information was listed. There is a lot of useful
information on the site and it is well-organized and well-written. The cost aspect was raised
again as well as the issue of who would be responsible for maintaining the site. Possibly move
the basic/static information to the NWCC webpage or the PNWCG webpage. Items that are
date/season sensitive would be kept on the social media sites and refer back to the static page.
Action Item(s):
1. Jeree will find out if it is possible to have NWCC or PNWCG house the site on their
server.
2. Lauren will take responsibility to be the “technology” person and updating the
information.
3. Mark will find out if possible to utilize WA DNR intern for social media sites.
Fire Restrictions Website: Group agrees that this site is important to support. Jeree and
Lauren have made contact with several personnel to get the information that Dale Guenther
requested. Possible issue due to different restrictions by various agencies, this is a policy issue,
not an IT issue and requires a standardized system for the public regarding outdoor burning.
PNW Prevention Conference: The Prevention WT moved away from involvement with the
conference due to inability to provide input to location, subject-matter, etc. of the conference.
An interagency prevention conference would be ideal even if it is held every other year rather
than every year. Group agreed that the WT needs to be involved and supportive of this
conference however, funding is still an issue. Possible ways to decrease cost are by utilizing
agency personnel or agencies paying for a speaker/conference room/etc. Question was raised
about the WT organizing a separate conference. Approach the current conference committee
to organize for the WT or put together a new group utilizing agency personnel to organize.
Decided that WT needs to reach out to the current organizers and re-establish a relationship
with them in order to effect change.
Action Item(s):
1. Invite Kelly Niles and Lou G to participate in the next meeting.
Smokey Bear Awards: General consensus that the group should submit nominations
(person/group) for this award. Discussion of possible nominations will take place at the
September meeting as applications are released in October. It would also be beneficial for
team members to disseminate information about the awards to personnel within their agency
and on their website.
Current/Expected Tasks: Maintain WT website; Support Fire Restrictions website by providing
requested information; Re-establish communications with the organizers of the Prevention
Conference and provide input/support; Submit nominations for the Smokey Bear Awards;
Develop list of regional IIOs and IIO h/o.
Action Item(s):
1. Esther will send out the list of tasks to team members for comment prior to submitting
to the Steering Committee.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be a conference call. A doodle poll will be sent out with
morning and afternoon times to choose from for the week of May 10 th.
The meeting adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
Attachments:
1. Team Charter
2. Task List