Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group
Meeting Notes
September 18, 2013, V1
In Attendance
Chair Pam Ensley (FWS)
David Summer (FS)
Cory Winnie (BIA)
Bill Slosson (WSFM)
Mike Minion (DNR & proxy for Dave LaFave )
Sid Beckman (NPS)
Bobbie Scopa (BLM & proxy for Jeff Fedrizzi)
Doug Grafe (ODF)
Dan O’Brien (NWCC) and todays notetaker
Pat Kelly (Executive Director)
Announcements:
IC Advisory Council AAR—Nov. 18-19, 2013 in Hood River
Contractor Association Mtg—Nov. 20th PNWCG Mtg—911 Bldg, Lloyd District
Tracking Commitments
2013 Contract Crew Utilization—Dan—ongoing; anecdotally, all crews were mob’ed.
Cohesive Strategy—ongoing?—status is uncertain
Fire Adapted Communities—completed? Nancy yet to confirm
IMT Governance TO to OWT—dropped in favor of letter
IMT Succession Planning—no progress—check back in 1st Friday in October
Fire Ops Safety Training Session—Ongoing
MAC Support Group Safety concept—Ongoing—discuss today
Draft AD Letter—discuss today
ITEM: NW Fire Season During Action Review
Crew utilization (Pam)
Seemed to run out of resources; where are agency crews? T2IA agency especially. May have been at
home doing IA. 2013 saw continuing response to lightning fires and so agency folks were kept at home
to respond.

ACTION ITEM: NMAC-GMAC topic—understand the story that needs to be told.
Safety Assistance Team (David)
Eight or nine large fires visited by 5 person interagency team. Team dialogued with local leadership,
IMTs, resources, local cooperators. See attached report for details. Does PNWCG want to reinstate
Safety Working team or assign tasks to existing WTs based on SAT recommendations; what follow up
needs to be accomplished? Share this narrative outside the Geographic Area?
IMTs found the SAT valuable and appreciated its work. Report was valuable for the information
provided and the issues, some symptomatic, that need to be investigated and appropriate guidance
developed. Should a NW Safety Team be formed annually to tour incidents?

ACTION ITEM: Issue SAT report to WT/AC’s with PNWCG Chair cover letter for information
sharing and to inform development of their Programs of Work.
Doug—Let’s be strategic in the use of SAT. Learn the lessons but be careful about being too systematic.
Mobilizing the team does tap capability.
Fatality Reporting (Pam/David)
Does the process work? Have the agencies received timely notification?
David—contractor quals are different than 310-1 guidance. Do we want to bring the two into
alignment? There are also issues of quality control. Need to make the decision soon. Do we need to
put a team together to understand and resolve these issues.
Should review FLA’s/Investigation reports to explore possible trends.
David—Commits to sharing (fatality reporting) staff work with PNWCG in a timely fashion.
Executive Memos
Pam—We should use PNWCG as a focus for educating and informing agency administrators. Engage
executives at every opportunity to build relationships and help each other out.
David—Greater need to meet when things are busy, to inform and to educate.
NW MAC Safety Operations Position (Bobbie for Jeff)
Table this topic for later when Jeff is able to attend.
David—would like to re-institute the Safety Working Team.
Dan—develop a “GACC Safety Specialist” position to order when it’s needed to work with NW
MAC/MAC Support.
NW MAC Ops Handbook Edits
Pam—what is the case for change?
Table this topic for later when Jeff is able to attend.
Reporting Requirements for T3, 4, 5 incidents not requiring ICS 209s
Dan—commits to documenting and distributing allocation decisions to show how/where/when NW
MAC is providing support to local or emerging incidents.
Group does NOT want to prioritize Type 3 incidents.
IMT Performance
David—site visits by NW MAC reps are a valuable for relationship building, information sharing and
situational awareness. Best when they are accomplished on an interagency basis.
Need to work on cost share agreements.

ACTION ITEM: Bobbie—has evaluations for all the NW Interagency IMTs. She will mail to Dan
who will post to “eyes only” web page for PNWCG access.
Pam—IHC’s want to be able to share “lessons learned” on experiences with incidents/IMTs.
David—Should we connect IHC supervisors with ICs, develop that relationship prior to developing other
systems for informing/learning?

ACTION ITEM: Pam to visit with IHCs to investigate the value and purpose of developing this
information link. GOAL: develop forum for learning and development. Bobbie will interface
with IHC group to prepare them and make space on meeting agenda (Oct 29-31).
Issues from IC’s:
 0730 IC Call—can we make it brief?
 Questions about timekeeping.
 AD issues
 Resources, lack of resources—Need more capable crews.
 Joint jurisdiction or Unified Command?
Doug—ODF burned acres in 2013 is 5 times yearly average and is the largest since 1951. IMT connection
with private landowners was well done this year. Collectively, as agency partners and landowners,
business was done differently/better than years past and it has made the difference in relationships.
Still some mending to do from 2012 season.
Single IMT Governing Board
Letter from Pam to IMT Governing Boards asking for input got to final edit but no further.
Bobbie—not sure how much feedback that will be received from Geo-Boards.
David—both Geo-Boards follow selection steps on June 21, 2013 letter. 2014 will be a transition year
into developing a single Geo-Board. Need to spend quality time designing the single board. OWT has
the preferred model.
Pam—change date on letter and get back on track. PNWCG decide on model and then start work to
design final geo-board.

ACTION ITEM: Resend June 21, 2013 letter with Pam cover letter stating that PNWCG has
accepted this process.

ACTION ITEM: Send out OWT proposal outlining options for Geo-Board model (June 7, 2013) to
Geo-Board chairs for review and input.
David—need to broaden the scope of notification to include Line Officers.
AD’s and Fire Department Supplemental Personnel
Draft letter “AD and Fire Department Supplemental Personnel” leaves some question on how best to
allow and utilize administratively determined employees. Focuses on AD’s as IMT members and doesn’t
clearly deliver intent for general assignments.
Is it better to deliver broader intent on use of AD’s? Deliver broad intent at the opening of the letter.

ACTION ITEM: Bobbie and Doug will contact Bob Madden to understand the impact of limiting
AD authorization for advancing red card qualifications.

ACTION ITEM: Dan will add a paragraph to the letter outlining broader leader’s intent on use of
AD’s in the NW.
The letter will then be distributed for 72-hour review.
Once PNWCG agrees to the final letter, it will be reviewed by Agency Administrators to make sure it’s
aligned with Agency intent.
Major Fall Meeting Issues
November meeting with Contractor Associations: how do we want to begin organizing for the meeting
this year?
Pam—Provide T2/T2IA crews information that, OWDC has completed for the associations to review for
information sharing.
David—share preliminary findings from FLA’s on 2013 fatalities. Have a line officer rep attend the
meeting, maybe a deputy RF. Make certain we’re not putting Agencies at risk by accepting to much
obligation.
Pam—invite someone from NWCG, the National Incident Business Management Committee.
Bobbie—provide information on progress made on issues raised last year.
Sid—we need to ask the associations what they’ve done to improve themselves.

ACTION ITEM: Cory will draft letter to the Associations. Letter will be out for review by midOctober.

ACTION ITEM: Pam will draft letter inviting Sarah Fisher, Kim Christiansen, Lyle Carlile, to the
November meeting.
Action Items from the Annual Workshop: how do we go about resolving issues and land on a PNWCG
organization that reflects the need?
David—can we adopt an “interest-based” approach that guides how groups form and how they are
composed?
Pat—with group’s approval, will make space on October agenda to follow up on this topic because
there’s a good chance we can get it finished up in November.
Cohesive Strategy
Phase 1 & 2 complete for all 3 regions. National Strategy to be prepared for approval; final document
will go to Congress in February 2014. See attached briefing paper.
Hot Topics
David—Cici Chitwood has accepted the position of Business Lead for SORO; Resource Integration Lead is
Denise Blankenship; Coop Fire Specialist interviews completed today—announce next week?; Program
Analyst will be selected by end of the month.
Mike Minion—Albert is new Protection Division Manager; Fire Control & Aviation Chief John Kaikkonen.
Bobbie—Yarnell Fire Investigation Update: report should be going to the State of Arizona soon.
Front Burner issues:
Pam—Fy14 FWS budget looks flat to 13; 15 is unknown. Fuels program still taking hits. Difficult times
ahead.
Cory—BIA same as FWS. Trying to come up with ways of prioritizing fuels programs. Expect another
buy-out this next year.
Mike—Budget flat in ’14; do have $$ coming in for two positions including a Division Safety Officer.
Asking for supplemental funds and additional firefighters. Outlook is positive.
Sid—Fuels will see 33% reduction; laying off seasonals at the end of Sept. Planning for further
reductions out to ’16, but optimism lurks that things will get better.
Bobbie—Expect flat budget in 14; looking at realigning organizations to adjust for changes in fuels
budget, especially specialist positions in other resources, and fire also.
David—Forest Service employees have been notified that furlough is an option this year. Fire program is
held in high esteem nationally, should be fairly stable. Airtanker upgrades could be paid for by not
hiring firefighters; tough choices ahead. Units have more or less “right-sized”.
Doug—ODF coming off worst fire season in many years. Burned acres and dollars spent is well above
historical averages. Positioned well with Oregon legislature. ODF leaned heavily on the National system
and it worked well. Rehab is going to be an important policy challenge now. Wildfire Protection Act
provided valuable severity justified aviation assets in Eastern Oregon. Travis will be the new Eastern
Oregon Area Director. Deputy Chief position to fill for next year.
DECISION: Renew the Executive Director Contract.
AAR:
Positive: Good facilitator, well-organized, useful background on each topic.
Improve: Note-taker needs to be nailed down.
Positive: Group is open and works well together.