PNWCG STEERING COMMITTEE
Meeting Notes
December 20, 2000
In Attendance:
Bob Anderson, Spokane Cty Fire Dist. #9
Earl Cordes, OR Fire Service
Mike Edrington, SORO
Mark Forbes, National Park Service
Terry Hueth, USFS
Barbara Kennedy, SORO
Lanny Quackenbush, ODF
Cory Winnie, BIA
John Viada, WDNR
Bob Garrison, Oregon Office SFM
Mary Corso, WA State Fire Marshall
Tom Schmidt, USFS
Joe Stutler, USFS
Introduction – Joe Stutler
The meeting began at 9:30 a.m. Joe Stutler explained the agenda and set a tentative schedule for the
day.
Review of 2000 Strategic Plan – Tactics (pages 9-14)
The committee reviewed the goals of the 2000 Strategic Plan and determined which tactics were
achieved as follows:
 Tactic 1.111
Partially achieved.
 Tactic 2.111
Partially achieved
 Tactic 2.112
Partially achieved
 Tactic 2.113
Not achieved
 Tactic 3.111
Partially achieved – on going
 Tactic 3.121
Partially achieved – on going
 Tactic 3.211
Not achieved – group was formed but no leader and have not yet met.
 Tactic 3.212
Achieved
 Tactic 3.311
Partially achieved – on going
 Tactic 3.3.12
Partially achieved
 Tactic 3.313
Not achieved – needs further work to define “states”.
 Tactic 3.411
Achieved – may want to consider extending to districts in the future.
 Tactic 3.511
? UNKNOWN ?
 Tactic 4.121
Achieved
 Tactic 4.122
Partially achieved
 Tactic 4.123
Not achieved
 Tactic 5.111
Achieved
 Tactic 5.112
Achieved
 Tactic 5.113
Achieved
 Tactic 6.111
Partially achieved
 Tactic 6.112
Partially achieved
2000 Stategic Plan –Planning Topics (pages 2-5)
Committee members agreed that the planning topics in the 2000 Strategic Plan needed the following
changes and/or additions for the year 2001 (changes shown in Bold):
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Fuels Management: Barriers: Ability to Hire, Train and Effectively use the Workforce;
Landscape scale treatment across agency boundaries; Smoke management concerns and laws;
Administrative differences between agencies; Public concerns over Rx fires; Fuels management
PNWCG Steering Committee
December 20, 2000
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may not be popular with local government; The Lack of a Common Process to Identify
Communities at Risk
Availability of Industry Resources: Barriers: Too many demands upon individuals; Lack of
commitment of agency administrators to make people available; Fewer people available (less
people in the agencies); Lack of incentives for people to participate; No Value/Benefit package to
draw people into participating; Need a concept of how IMT could be integrated; Perception
that structural firefighters can’t participate on IMT’s; Perception that contractors can’t be on
IMT’s; Need streamline training process for integration of structure personnel;
Public Safety and Health: Barriers: Policies of regulatory agencies and ours; Public awareness of
the dangers of wildland fire; Effective monitoring; Lack of coordinated wildfire and Rx fire
monitoring efforts; Ability to work within and understand current laws of regulatory
agencies regarding smoke management; Lack of interagency contingency planning.
Effective Training: Candidate pools not uniformly screened; Lack of integrated, programmatic
and systematic formal training for all agencies (including emergency response agencies); The
number of qualified instructors; Course content/delivery systems not set up to meet customer
needs (i.e. RFD.
Complete Area Coordination, Universal for Sub-geographic Areas Reflecting a Seamless
Interagency Effort – NO CHANGE
Public Education, Re-education and Marketing for Fuels Management
Be More Cost Effective and Efficient with Fire Suppression – Barriers: Agency culture i.e. Cost
not being considered a limitation –acting like have unlimited spending; Politics surrounding
an incident; Overcoming public expectations vs. building dumb fireline; Conscious decision to
obey existing land management decisions. Delete last sentence “All our successes erased by one
mistake”.
Secure Congressional, legislative, and administrative support for fully funding most efficient
level (MEL) with emphasis on applying funding to initial and extended attack resources –
Replace the word “federal” with “state” as feds are now at MEL whereas states are not.
Enhance Personnel Safety – NO CHANGE
Continue to Enhance MAC ( Multi-Agency Coordination Group) – Delete “Structural fire
fighters can’t play” and “Lack of coordination State Fire Marshall Office of mobilization of
resources.”
Develop or Create Opportunities for private Wildland Fire Services – NO CHANGE
Integration of Local and Rural Fire Departments into Wildland Organizations – committee
considered adding “vice versa” to the existing title and determined that there was potential for
another planning topic here. The issue will be revisited at a later date.
Streamline Fire Management Fire Business Management Policies for local, State and Federal
resources – NO CHANGE
Fire Weather Services – NO CHANGE
Implementation of the Resource Allocation Process – NO CHANGE
Safely and Effectively Utilize Resources in the Wildland Interface – Delete last sentence of the
barrier statement. Replace the word “need” with “Lack of” in the new final sentence.
True Common Standards for Use of Aircraft – Barriers: Lack of common standards for
airplane use; Agency culture; Budget restrictions; Types of airplanes selected, sometimes too
expensive for all; Common definition by agencies for safe and “good enough”; Self imposed
agency standards i.e. Air Service Module (ASM) use, carding issues that cause conflicts;
Nationally mandated standards resulted in a lack of resources to fill critical positions.
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December 20, 2000
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Establish an Effective Communication and Organization for PNWCG, the Membership and the
PNWCG Steering Committee – Barriers: Lack of effective National Coordination; Lack of
clear-cut communication process; Lack of information management; Agency constraints;
Communication hardware and delivery systems; Lack of customer support organization which
meets customer needs i.e. Lack of effective link between PNWCG and the broader customer base.
Functional vs. Sub-geographic conflicts result in Competing Efforts and Duplication: Recommend deletion as this appears to be a duplicate
Suggested New Planning Topics: Committee members agreed that the following topic needed to be
added to the Strategic Plan and considered the following Goals, Objectives and Barriers:
 Implementation of the National Fire Plan in the Pacific Northwest Suggested Goals included:
Positions filled at MEL;
Fewer fires due to fuels;
Reduced risk hazard;
Interface more serviceable vs. defensible
People trained;
Seamless process for allocating money to communities;
Community involvement with decisions;
Improved local/rural capabilities;
Congressional intent met, therefore reduced fire losses to communities and resources;
Solidify interagency concept;
ALL completed in the most effective manner
Suggested Objectives included:
Identify/Develop methods to reduce the impact of fire to communities and resources in
the Pacific Northwest.
Establish mechanism to enhance preparedness for IA through achieving 100% MEL
Establish benchmark standards for implementing and measuring outcome (to measure
accountability).
Suggested Barriers:
Lack of standards for identifying/ evaluating communities at risk;
Lack of process to implement on the ground from an IA perspective;
Lack of IA communication strategy;
Lack of National coordination; direction not forthcoming or filtered;
Lack of IA process to distribute money to states, local, government and tribes;
No IA approach to dealing with regulatory agencies;
No buy-in from all affected stakeholders;
Compressed time lines;
Lack of measurement standards to define success;
Lack of available workforce;
Ability to train in a timely manner to meet NFP;
Lack of infrastructure to provide the training; Differences in expectations of end users;
Lack of shared vision of each others role with NFP;
Agency culture – not coordinated;
NFP may not meet/match PNWCG (agency) needs.
Following considerable discussion, the committee refined the new topic as follows;
PNWCG Steering Committee
December 20, 2000
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Topic: Implementing the National Fire Plan in the Pacific Northwest
Goal 1. Effectively Coordinate Interagency efforts to implement the NFP in
the Pacific Northwest.
Objectives:
 Identify/ develop methods to reduce impacts of fire losses to
communities and resources in the Pacific Northwest
Strategies:
 Provide guidance to Sub-geographic areas to maximize the
outcome of fuel management to communities.
 Provide guidance to Sub-geographic areas to maximize
MEL for preparedness for all agencies.
 Other fuels, methods - non-burning.
 Develop Interagency coordinating mechanism that includes
regulatory agencies.
Goal 2. Effective Communication of the NFP issuer/results
Objectives:
 Develop interagency coordination mechanism that includes
regulatory agencies.
 Interagency approach to public/community education on NFP.
The Top Four Issues for the 2001 Strategic Plan were identified and committees named to develop
the goals, objectives, strategies and tactics for those issues and present them at the February meeting
of the PNWCG Steering Committee. Those committees are:
Implementation of the NFP including Fuels Management - Tom Schmidt, Mike Edrington,
Terry Hueth, John Viada
Availability of and the Effective Training of Resources -
Mary Corso, Earl Cordes,
Mark Forbes
Effective Communication -
Bob Anderson, Cory Winnie
In order to share NFP information between now and February, Tom Schmidt will lead conference
calls the first Tuesday of each week at 0800. The first conference call is scheduled for January 2,
2001. The conference number is 877-396-1925.
PNWCG Steering Committee Chairman and Vice-Chairman for 2001:
Members were reminded that Mark Forbes is the new PNWCG Chairman for the year 2001 with Bob
Anderson as Vice-Chairman.
The next meeting of the PNWCG Steering Committee was scheduled for January 17, 2001, at the
Marshall House, Vancouver, WA. Meetings for the year 2001 will be held at the Marshall House in
Vancouver, WA., except for the months of July, August and September. Those meetings will be held
at the Northwest Coordination Center for convenience to all during fire season.
Meeting adjourned at 3:20 p.m.