Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group
Fuels Management Working Team
Meeting Notes
Date: 9-23-2010 0900-1200 at NWCC
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X
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C
Leanne Mruzik – BLM, Chair
Laura Mayer - FS
Alan McGuire-Dale - FS
Darrell Johnston – WA DNR
Lauren Maloney - BLM
Cyndi Sidles – FWS, Vice Chair
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X
C
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Mary Helen Smith - ODF
Pam Ensley – FWS, Liaison
Dee Townsend - NPS
Gene Lonning - BIA
John Buckman - ODF
Bill Aney - FS
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Dennis Fiore - BLM
Guests
Dale Guenther – FS, GIS
Teresa Vonn - ODF
X= attended
C= Call In
Topics:
1. Review Previous Meeting Notes – Quick review of last meeting notes, no changes
needed. Dennis Fiore was introduced as new team member. He will function as a
member of the grants subcommittee representing the BLM.
2. Review of Grants Briefing Paper – Lauren Maloney has put together a draft Grants
Briefing paper that summarizes the grant process as it relates to each of the agencies
as well as, gives past grants funding and accomplishment history. Still need feedback
from NPS and FWS. Everyone liked the maps provided by DNR, and would like the final
summary to include both Oregon and Washington maps. One map showing the location
of completed CWPP’s and one with completed treatments. Teresa Vonn indicated that
ODF could provide Oregon information for the CWPP’s, but ODF is currently updating
treatments areas for the State. This information may not be available by October
20th.
Action Item(s):
a. Everyone will review the briefing paper, and send edits to Lauren and Leanne by
October 20th.
b. Dee Townsend will send NPS information to Lauren by October 20th.
c. Cyndi Sidles will send FWS information to Lauren by October 20th.
d. Pam or Cyndi will present draft to PNWCG SC meeting on October 20th if time
permits during their meeting.
e. Leanne and Lauren will completed a final draft by November 18th for the team to
review. During WT’s next meeting on December 16 a final product should be
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3. PNWCG SC Update – Pam Ensley provided the WT an update on the upcoming SC
meeting on October 20th. The SC is convening a panel of agency representatives to
present the latest information as it relates to the Interagency Cohesive Strategy,
West Wide Risk Assessment, both ODF and DNR State Assessments, and the new DOI
HFPAS/EMDS efforts. The SC has invited the FMWT to attend this meeting, and to
provide some questions (challenges as it relates to all the efforts) to the SC by
October 12th. The FMWT took about 30 minutes, and discussed some question to ask
the panel.
Action Item(s):
a. Leanne will draft up questions and send to FMWT to review and edit. Final
questions to be sent to Pam by COB October 12th.
4. Discuss NFP Grant Cycle – FMWT identified the four subcommittee members;
DNR – Darrell Johnston, ODF – Mary Helen Smith, BLM – Dennis Fiore (Lauren
Maloney to help until Dennis gets his feet on the ground), FS – Alan McGuireDale. Timeline for NFP grants was discussed with the most immediate date
being the call for applications to happen late Novemeber/early December. The
subcommittee agreed to meet the afternoon of October 20th, after the SC
meeting in the morning. They will set further meeting as needed at the 20th
meeting.
The group discussed the future of Ready Reserve and RFA funding, and the low
probability of receiving funding in FY11. As of right now the BLM budget
directives indicate that these programs will be eliminated. Mary Helen
expressed concern with the need to know ASAP, whether this will hold through
the year so the States can get ready in a timily matter to put out a call for
grants. States would likely need an answer by end of January in order to move
forward in FY11.
Action Item(s):
a. Leanne will check with Alan to make sure he can make the Oct. 20th
subcommittee meeting, and email Pam so she can reserve a meeting room
at the GPNF Office.
5. Discussion with GIS WT Chair Dale Guenther – Dale Guenther presented the latest
map product the GIS working team has produced for the SC. We discussed how fuels
treatments are represented on the map. The biggest confusion for the group was the
polygons that appeared to be actual fire polygons (i.e. tripod, biscuit, etc.) that are
current labeled as fuels treatment polygons on forest service lands, and in some cases
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on BIA lands. We suggested that those areas be identified separately from fuels
treatments that are funded through federal/state hazardous fuels funding. This
would be a more useful tool for the FMWT to identify were treatments have occurred
in the past and may help with future prioritization.
As of right now the FS has complete and updated fuels treatment polygons for 20012009. GIS is working on the BLM, and hope to have that completed in the near future.
DNR has a completed set of treatment polygons, and ODF is currently collecting
treatment polygons. The group agreed it was important to have treatment polygons for
all the federal and state agencies. Gene Lonning thought it would be important for the
SC to as agree to the importance of a complete data layer for fuels treatment polygons
to ensure the effort is consistent and completed in the near future. In addition, the
group agreed to the core data sets that Dale handed out, and felt there has already
been an extensive effort to come up with a core data set, and there is no need to
change them. We also understood that each state/federal agency could add whatever
data sets elements they felt were important to them as they collected polygon data.
The group then discussed what time frame or how far back can we realistically collect
data for fuels treatments completed over the past ten years. We decided that 2005
would be a reasonable year for each of the federal/state agencies to gather data. We
agreed that this work be a workload, and that the SC would need to make this effort,
and provide leadership to ensure the most complete polygon data set.
Dale then presented the FTEM web site. FS and BLM are currently entering in fire
that burn through fuels treatments on federal, and adjacent non-federal lands if the
areas were treated with NFP grant funding. The group discussed that this would be
good to capture as many fires as possible, especially those on non-federal land. Again
the group thought this should be presented to the SC to have buy-in at the leadership
level to ensure data is being entered for all lands on a consistent basis.
Action Items:
a. Leanne and Dale will meet to discuss how to present FMWT thoughts to the SC
in February with the goal of having the SC support the current GIS efforts, and
to have all lands entered into FTEM.
b. Dale will look into separating the “fire use” fuels treatments from the
treatments funded by annual fuels funding.
c. Gene and Dee should contact Dale to ensure NPS and BIA treatment polygons
can be collected and what would be the best way to proceed.
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Dates to Remember:
October 20, 2010
PNWCG SC Meeting in the AM, FMWT grant
subcommittee meeting in the PM. Location still to be
announced.
November 18th
FMWT grant subcommittee possible meeting if needed
December 16th
Next FMWT meeting at NWCC 0900-1200
Note Taker for Next Meeting: Dennis Fiore