Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group
Operations Working Team (OWT)
October 18, 2012
Operations Working Team: Brian Gales (USFWS), Larry Nickey (NPS), Robert Madden (OR Fire Service), John Szulc
(BIA), Dave Quinn (NWCC), Albert Kassel (WADNR), Bobby Scopa (USFS), Doug Grafe (ODF), Carla Schamber
(USFS, Facilitator)
Via conference call: Randy Johnson (WA Fire Service)
Absent: John Ketchum (OR Fire Marshall’s),
Guests: Colleen Kieser, ODF
Guests via conference call:
Agenda Items:
Old Business:
S520/620
Nominations reviewed and nominations moved forward:
IIO - Cindy Bork primary, Wayne Patterson secondary
SOF - Brian Watson
PSC – John Sprague
LSC – George Bigby
OSC - John Szulc
S620 – Joe Stutler
S620 – Brian Jennings
Action Item – Szulc to contact Beams/Redmond with nominations. OWT needs to contact IC’s once Type 1 team IC’s
are selected for 2013 season to discuss mentor assignments. Madden to follow up.
S420
Washington Geo Board is talking about doing a S420 class room course within the State of Washington to catch up on a
back log of personnel needing the course. Training working team members (Szulc,Gales) need to further discuss with
Renee Beams at Redmond to get approval.
Action Item – Invite Renee to next OWT meeting or have her attend by conference call. Kassel to compile stats to
provide support the course.
Retardant Avoidance – Kassel had asked for shape file so that DNR could add to their layers. Nickey forwarded what
he had to working team members, this may not be the latest info but what was provided at beginning of the season.
Successional Plan Task Order – for both T1 & T2 teams – (Task order 11-11-12)
Dave Lentz and Nickey were working on this process. With the passing of Dave, some of the data is missing. We will
need to resend the spreadsheet out to IC’s to have updated information from the 2012 season.
Action Item – Larry to send out spreadsheet to IC’s to have them resend updated information by the IC council
meeting November 13. John will forward information to Steering that analysis of the product will be given at
January Steering meeting.
Incident within the Incident – ODF had 3 incidents within an incident and all seemed to go well with the PNW model
that is being used. One issue on Wenatchee Complex of an ICS-206 using slightly different language than the national
language. Several other fires had incident within an incident, but there were not upward reported to GACC. Protocol
needs to be discussed, as there is are various interpretations on what needs to be reported to what levels.
Action Item: Doug, Albert and Dave will bring in their requirements for upward reporting of incidents within
incident to the November meeting for further discussion. May possibly need to adjust PNW Incident within Incident
if more upward reporting is needed.
Vice Chair/Chair for OWT – With Dave Lentz’s death, discussion was brought forward to have OR Fire Service take
BLM rotation spot, to allow new BLM employee to get familiar. BLM would slide back to OR Fire Service slot.
Action Item – OWT agreed to flop OR Fire Service and BLM. Madden has a few home unit projects that may require
him to miss several meetings in person. Szulc agreed to facilitate the meetings that Madden has to miss. After this
rotation, BLM and OR Fire Service will go back to normal rotation.
Alaska sister team support proposal – No real test of new process that was put into place for FY2012. Need to review
process again next spring with Alaska. Still need to work on ICAP application process in future for coordination
between areas.
PNW and Alaska support process that was agreed upon is as follows:
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Alaska IC queries Alaska personnel and determines needs for their teams rotation
Alaska IC sends needs list to AICC.
AICC sends out in advance needs list to NWCC dispatch center, with contact info for IC with team needing.
NWCC sends message to all dispatch centers in OR and WA (fed, state and interagency)
OR and WA dispatch centers send out to their mailing lists
If person is available, they contact the Alaska IC direct that they are available for the ten day rotation, and the
Alaska IC rosters the person in ROSS as a team member. IC selects agency personnel first, AD second. If AD
is sent, they will include an agency trainee with the AD.
Action Item: Need to contact Alaska OWT to discuss ICAP process. Bobbie called and talked to Dave Whitmer and
confirmed that Peter Butteri from Alaska OWT was working with Dale Gunther on ICAP application process. Alaska
not on same schedule with PNW, so this year will be going with later announcement. PNW OWT needs to follow up
with Alaska OWT in future for 2014 season.
OR MT/PNW T1 Update – Had OWT member at each close out for Washington Type 1 assignments.
Team 3 assignment – a little behind number wise on Safety and PIO was a little slow to get developed, but overall team
did well. Team 2 assignment – Did very well once they got set up and managing the fire. Team 2 had a Wyoming
deployment. Some discussion of the Oregon assignments was given, but no OWT members were present. Discussed
issue of multiple transitions on Pole Creek having had some effect on firefighters as teams kept rotating through. Team
3 had challenge of being on border of two GACCs, before Team 3 took over fire during transition.
Discussed inviting Type 1 IC’s to join next OWT via conference call or in person. Discuss combining the Type 1 team
meeting with WA team meeting for 2013 team meeting.
Action Item – John Szulc will extend an invitation to the National IC/Deputy IC’s to attend via conference call/in
person. Kassel will confirm with Yakima Convention Center that there is meeting space for two additional teams.
ICAPS Changes – Dale and Lanny has incorporated most of the change needs of Washington and Oregon, prior to the
program going national. Dale, Albert and Carla did a lot of work on getting this accomplished to meet the needs of the
users. ICAPS team application announcement was supposed to come out Oct 15. OWT needs to work with Kevin
Martin (OR GEO board) and Gerry Day (WA GEO board) to get a joint letter out.
Action Item – Schamber, Nickey and Szulc merged the three governing board’s announcements to make one
announcement for all Oregon, Washington and Type 1 teams in PNW. DNR did not sign the letter. A separate letter will
be drafted for WA. Once Oregon and Washington approve of the changes/merge, respective GEO boards need to
disperse the announcement by October 22.
2013 Type 1 ICs – Discussion of Jeff Pendleton’s impending retirement and Mark Marcom transfer to a different region.
Names were discussed on availability pool to replace the current IC’s.
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IT support/hosted web – At previous meeting, Dan O’Brien gave update on issue of information being spread out over
numerous websites. Dan is offering the suggestion that possibly personnel at NWCC could serve as a “host” on their
website to link various documents on other systems. Do we need someone in NWCC to serve as a central point as a web
master/web support for PNWCG, teams and units. Some teams and units are much more advanced than others.
PNWCG utilizes various staff to manage the various websites. Having a centralized person at NWCC could allow a
more centralized process and appearance.
Jim Edwards is current contact to have items posted on PNWCG website
Action Items: Item postponed until November Meeting. Larry will send Jim Edwards notes from PNWCG ops for
2011 to be posted
OWT Charter Review – Need to begin yearly two year review of charter of OWT Charter, per charter requirements.
Action Items – Item postponed until November meeting. OWT will then send updated charter to Steering for
signature and posting on PNWCG web page.
New Business:
PNWCG steering update – Bobbie gave update - Training working team is asking upper levels to get training exempt
from the travel cap, but does not appear to be changed. Training working team charter being reworked. Joel will rework
business plan. PNWCG will have meeting with contractors for feedback from the contractors for season. PNWCG will
have meeting Nov. 5 concerning long term team management and how the national team successional planning will
affect the region.
Agency updates USFS/BLM - Steve Rawlings (BLM) and Joe Krisch (USFS) officially start on Monday as two operations
specialists. New BLM State FMO (Jeff Andrese), which will take Bobbie out of PNWCG role. Looking at
some operational cost analysis of resources for a standard cost package. Busy fire season. Had 132 percent of
acreage burned in a normal fire season. 1.6 million acres burned in region. 182 day long season from first day
put firefighters out on fires. Still working on incorporating Alaska fire into Region 6. Continue looking at
some restructuring of positions. Operations contracting (engine, water handling) new 3-year solicitation is
coming out. Contract associations will be invited to next PNWCG meeting (Nov. 13) to discuss how season
went. Budget may be flat to slight bump.
NPS – Quite fire year in Parks within region for most part. Sue Husari has retired. Probable budget cuts in
preparedness and fuels for 2013.
BIA- Very busy on BIA protection areas. Large fires in Colville (4), Warm Springs, Yakima and several large Type
3 incidents. Also within BIA region had several large fires in other states. Had several incidents within
incident (burn-over, tender roll-over). Have a severe travel cap and looking at what is exempt from travel cap.
Under continuing resolution, but will probably have close to 10% cut for FY13. Talking about early
retirements and furloughs, but no RIFs.
ODF – Doug has been in a development position with ODF. Dennis Lee, unit forester from Klammath Lake, will be
filling in for Doug on OWT through June, 2013. Colleen Kieser filled in this past summer and was thanked
for the job well done. ODF looking at aviation resource allocation with anticipated funding for next season.
Potential for additional/extended contracts for air tankers, SEATS, helicopters. Potential use of additional
camera systems for detection, as camera system seemed to work well. Working on National Cohesive
Strategy.
WA DNR – Busy September with fires. Looking at needing to go to Legislature for nearly $32 million. Some these
will be FMAG fires. Legislative review of DNR fire program. Jerry Day retiring at end of Month. Albert
Kassel has been hired in Jerry’s place. Albert’s job will be announced as two positions (emergency
management and fire). Rex Reed (Type 2 IC) retired at end of summer. Noted that Mark Thibo (Type 2 IC)
had passed away this summer from a rare disease.
USFWS – Had some fire activity in region that had not previously had larger responses to. DNR and fire services
helped alot on those. Type 2 incident down on Malheur. Several motor vehicle accidents that appear not to be
fault of the agency drivers. Looking at potential 15% reduction this year and another 15% following year.
WA Fire Service – Large number of task books were able to be completed due to the number of mobilizations that
occurred this summer. Number of departments going through budget issues.
OR Fire Service – City of Bend going through major restructuring of fire department due to budget shortfalls. Had
several good multi-agency responses in the area. Good working relationship with area agencies on wildfires.
Several Oregon departments dealing with reduced budgets.
NWCC – Began fire support earlier than normal this year, with fires back east. Had three bursts of fires in PNW;
July, August and September. Processed over 20,000 overhead resource orders alone. Staffing for NWCC is
currently good, but have a possible retirement or two pending. MAC support went well overall.
OWT 2012 program of work – comments follow
S520/620 – completed. Letter sent out and Mentor teams assigned. Need to recruit mentees for the next group of
520/620.
Incident within Incident follow up
T1/T2 Team Successional Planning task order 1111-12
Successional Planning spreadsheet – need to complete in November
Type 1 Team IC – went over potential candidates and discussed how to fill in behind current IC’s as they retire or
move on. Will put out an announcement in 2013.
IMT Type 1 team member tenure task order 1104-01- memo was sent out. Will need to insure the next application
announcement spells out that type 1 teams will be on one year
Alaska Share Task Order 1009-04 – see above action item. Need to finalize at next OWT meeting.
Re-advertise for the national teams – in the fall
OWT member to mobilize with Type 1 team
Review Best Value Determination for Crew Contract
Agenda items for next meeting:
TBA
Upcoming meetings of interest:
OWT Liaisons to other PNWCG working teams
Training WT – John Szulc
Contract WT – Albert Kassel
Aviation WT – Larry Nickey
Health and Safety WT – Brian Gales
OWT Schedule of remaining 2012 (0900-1530 approximate times) at Gifford Pinchot NF Supervisors Office
unless otherwise noted:
October 18 - Gifford Pinchot NF
November 15-16 – Hood River
December – No meeting
January 17 –TBA - Meet with ICs for team selection
February 21April 8 – Yakima – in conjunction with WA team meetings
May 16 –
June 20 – Get ICAPS done
September 19 –
October 17 –
November 21-
OPERATIONS WORKING TEAM MEMBER ADDRESSES
2012 Operations Working Team (OWT) member contact numbers and email addresses (Names listed in
order of which agency is next chairperson).
John Szulc – BIA representative (Chairperson)
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Northwest Regional Office
Robert Madden - OR Fire Service representative
Bend Fire Department
Vacant – BLM representative (Vice-Chairperson)
USDI-Bureau of Land Management, OR/WA State Office
Fire and Aviation Management
Albert Kassel – DNR representative
Department of Natural Resources, Resource Protection Division
Brian Gales – USFWS representative
US Fish and Wildlife
Doug Grafe – ODF representative
Oregon Department of Forestry
Bobbie R. Scopa – USFS representative
USDA-Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region
Fire and Aviation Management
Randy Johnson – WA Fire Service representative
Spokane County Fire District 4
Larry Nickey – NPS representative
Olympic National Park
John Ketchum – Ad Hoc member
Oregon State Fire Marshall’s Office
David Summer – PNWCG Steering Liaison
USDA-Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region
Carla Schamber – facilitator
Siuslaw National Forest
Dave Quinn – Dispatch Rep.
NW Coordination Center