Enclosure 3B - Project Summary Form
158
NATIONAL FIRE PLAN COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE AND WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE PROJECTS
Application for Community Risk Assessment and Mitigation Planning
Applicant
Applicant/Organization:
Kettle Range Conservation Group
Phone:
Type of Applicant: (enter appropriate letter in box)
L
509-775-2667
FAX:
A. State
B. County
C. Municipal
D. Township
E. Interstate
F. Intermunicipal
G. Special District
509-775-3454
Email:
tcoleman@kettlerange.org
H. Independent School District
I. State-Controlled Institution of Higher Learning
J. Private University
K. Indian Tribe
L. Nonprofit Organization
M. Other (Specify) _______________________
Address (Street or P. O. Box, City, State, Zip):
600 S. Clark St., PO Box 150, Republic, WA 99166
Project Coordinator
Project Coordinator (Name and Title):
Organization/Jurisdiction: Kettle
Phone:
George Wooten, Field Specialist
Range Conservation Group
FAX:
Email:
509-997-6010
gwooten@kettlerange.org
Project Information
Project Title:
Fuels Treatment Follow-up Evaluations
Proposed Project Start Date:
March 2005
Proposed Project End Date:
March 2006
Federal Funding Request:
Total Project Cost:
Are you submitting multiple projects? If so, please prioritize, and explain if the projects are stand alone, sequential, or other:
No
Brief Project Summary: Who, What, Where, Desired Outcomes in relation to NFP Goals and Community Risk Assessment and
Mitigation Plans (This should summarize page 2).
Kettle Range Conservation Group, in cooperation with Washington Department of Wildlife,
Washington DNR and U.S. Forest Service, seeks funding to assess fuels treatment effectiveness in
both burned and unburned areas of the Wildland-Urban interface of Okanogan County. The project
will assess treatments by using matched case-controlled samples in three different treatment ages.
Results will be described in a report suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Project Location:
County:
Federal Congressional District:
Okanogan County
Okanogan
105th
Name of Federal, tribal, and/or State Official with whom you coordinated this
proposal:
Telephone number of Contact:
Leahe Swayze, Methow Ranger Station
509-996-4063
Enclosure 3B (Page 1 of 3) - Project Narrative Description
Applications for funding must include a narrative response that describes the proposal. Please do not submit responses longer than
one page, single space, 12-pitch font.
Describe project including, but not limited to:
 change fire behavior
 WHO are your collaborators - are they current or potential collaborators?
Address these
through fuels reduction
 describe the relationship of this plan’s desired outcome to NFP Goals
items as
 increase community
and to any existing community fire protection plan.
applicable:
education and awareness
 project time frames and matching or contributed funds
 enhance fire protection
 tools and/or skills needed to complete project
capability
 specific project location, geographic extent, and fire risk assessment
 desired outcome
methodology
For this project, explain the level of cooperation, coordination or strategic planning, through a “Local Coordination
Group.” If you haven’t worked with a local coordination group, why not?
This project will assess the current conditions of fuels and ecosystems in selected watersheds where
Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) zones exist within ponderosa pine/shrub-steppe ecosystems. The effects of
prescribed fire and fuel manipulations will be evaluated in case-controlled studies at three sites with different
ages since treatment.
Fire researchers and managers are dependent upon accurate, reliable, and efficiently obtained data for the
development and application of fire behavior models that guide management. This study will evaluate the
effects of past fires and treatments in paired, adjacent evaluation areas on three sites where homes were
threatened or lost by wildfire and/or treated for fuels reduction or salvage. These areas will be located in
Okanogan County areas treated during three different time periods from 1 to 30 years old. Examples of fires
considered include Rocky Hull Fire (recent) and Barker Mountain Fire (over 10 years old).
Recent research suggests that cumulative effects of fuel treatments on landscape-scale fire behavior and
effects (e.g. spread rate, crown fire potential and severity) depend heavily on the nature and spatial
arrangement of the treatments, which in real landscapes is challenged by uncertainty in fuel treatment effects,
variability of fire behavior and vegetation response, difficulties with scheduling treatments over space and
time, and restrictions on management activities. This project will test the effectiveness of fuels treatments at
the sub-watershed spatial scale over a three-decade temporal scale by examining the effects of past fire and
treatment disturbances in a case-controlled field study.
We will correlate the results with applicable sets of the 13 standard Anderson fuel models and upland cover
types using geospatial software for fire behavior fuel mapping, including ArcView© 3.2 with Spatial Analyst,
BEHAVE 2.0 FARSITE and FlamMap 3.01.
Sites chosen will represent a cross-section of land ownership patterns (Forest Service, BLM, NPS, private,
tribal), treatments (including a variety of fire regimes, e.g., surface and crown fire), and range of fuel
reduction activities, logging, thinning, controlled burning). Mapping will involve assembling the necessary
spatial data in raster formats for modeling purposes.
This project will gather reliable measurements of fuel characteristics, vegetative composition, fuel loadings,
crown bulk density, canopy height, crown base height, and canopy closure required to accurately map fuel
loading and model fire behavior within the evaluation landscapes.
This project was developed in collaboration with Methow Community Fire Plan Coordinating Group,
Methow Forest Owners’ Cooperative, and a fuels treatment prioritization study on Sinlahekin Wildlife area in
which the Project Coordinator is participating as a principal investigator.
Following initial site selection, the data-gathering and database entry phase will occur during the summer
months and be complete by January of 2005. Additional labor covered under this funding will be used for
report writing, and at least one public presentation. All software, forest mensuration equipment and data
layers have been assembled for use by this project so that funding will only be needed to cover travel and
labor.
Enclosure 3B (Page 2 of 3) - Project Evaluation Criteria
Applications for funding, must include narrative responses that address the following four criteria. Be sure you address every one
briefly, yet thoroughly. Limit your responses to the area provided.
1. Planning for Action (40 points)
A. Describe your desired plan outcome and how the outcome will be measured.
B. How will the plan address :
 Fire behavior changes through fuels reduction
 Community education and awareness
 Enhanced suppression capability
C. How will the completed plan be implemented, and by whom? OR How does this plan enhance or complete
previous fire planning by the community?
D. How will the plan address landowner responsibility for implementation of this plan?
E. Describe your ability to complete project in one year of receipt of funds
Response:
This project will evaluate the effectiveness of fuel treatments for different fire behavior and vegetation
cover types. Successive refinements of the treatment methods will incorporate structural and vegetative stand
attributes to model the changed risk for crown fire potential, surface spreading rate and fire control costs.
The project will begin with review of suitable sites through consideration of historically mapped fires, and
initial identification of potential sites by their likely treatments. Following this, site owners will be contacted
for participation in the study, after which samples will be established randomly within case and control sites.
Site evaluations will be done on-site during the summer months and data on forest structure and vegetation
will be entered into a database as it is gathered.
The principal investigator will be George Wooten. He will maintain and operate the Arcview GIS for this
project, in addition to supervising the gathering of field data. He has a long history of working with geospatial
data for many projects, including botanist for the 1993 North Cascades Grizzly Bear Ecosystem Evaluation
and Report to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, specialist for USDA-USDI Missoula Fire Sciences
Laboratory’s map of the Columbia Basin, and a white paper documenting the amount of shrub-steppe habitat
remaining in Washington (www.kettlerange.org/steppeweb).
The
and final
report will
be presented
a public
meeting
during) early 2006. The final report will be
2. data
Enhancing
Community
Collaboration
andat
Local
Capacity.
(30 points
provided
in hardcopy
to state,
county andtofederal
as well
as online and on CD for
A. Describe
your strategy
for collaboration
developplanning
this planauthorities
across multiple
ownerships.
availability
of fire
planning
efforts
B. Identify the
interested
partners
andnationwide.
members of the community who are involved in this project, and the level of
their
involvement.
The project is designed to be cost effective, and involve cooperative funding through partnership with
C. How will this project enhance local community collaboration and local capacity for cooperative action?
existing fire planning authorities, and shared use of equipment and resources from similar projects.
D. Describe skills or experience the community will gain through development of this plan.
Response:
This project will assess the current conditions of fuels and ecosystems in selected watersheds where
Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) zones exist within ponderosa pine/shrub-steppe ecosystems. The effects of
prescribed fire and fuel manipulations will be evaluated in case-controlled studies at three sites with different
ages since treatment.
Sites chosen will represent a cross-section of land ownership patterns (Forest Service, BLM, NPS, private,
tribal), treatments (including a variety of fire regimes, e.g., surface and crown fire), and range of fuel
reduction activities, logging, thinning, controlled burning).
This project was developed in collaboration with Methow Community Fire Plan Coordinating Group,
Methow Forest Owners’ Cooperative, and a fuels treatment prioritization study on Sinlahekin Wildlife area in
which the Project Coordinator is participating as a principal investigator.
Enclosure 3B (Page 3 of 3) - Project Evaluation Criteria
3.
Expanding Community Participation. (30 Points)
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Explain the level of cooperation, coordination and/or involvement of the Local Coordination Group. List the
cooperators/members (in a broad way) of the local area coordination group.
Describe your strategy for leveraging funding. Who are the partners and what is their commitment to the
plan’s completion, including any existing or proposed cost-share agreements and their status.
Describe the extent of local support or opposition for the project.
Describe your strategy for post-plan marketing and collaboration for the successful implementation of the
next steps described in the plan.
To what extent will this project be offered to serve as a model for other communities in your sub-geographic
area, state-wide area?
Response:
The results of this project will directly benefit collaborators that include Methow Community Fire Plan
Coordinating Group, Methow Forest Owners’ Cooperative, and Sinlahekin Wildlife Area. The results will be
used to inform groups of optimum management practices that will achieve the desired fuel conditions.
Cooperators will share in both in-kind as well as actual costs. The former include shared data from the other
fuels mapping projects such as the one at Sinlahekin Wildlife area. Actual costs sharing will include
$6,500.00 from Kettle Range Conservation Group in computer hardware, software and travel mileage.
Okanogan County will be included as a recipient of all data and reports, and it is expected that the county will
want to include this information on the county server. Therefore we have included Okanogan County as a
cooperator. The final data sets are extremely large, and maps are expensive to produce, therefore we will be
assisting with the dissemination of data to agencies by storing it on a RAID network server, and printing
maps in formats suitable for public meetings, nominally at least 24” X 24”. These two items are included in
the funding request.
The evaluation of fuel treatments will be made available in printed form to state, county and federal
planning authorities as well as online and on CD for availability of fire planning efforts nationwide as well as
within local planning jurisdictions. The results and input data from this project will be useful for private land
owners and agencies entering into post- or pre-fire treatment programs. In addition, the project will aid in the
development of watershed planning efforts that use funds to plan for restoration or protection from wildfires.
This project will assist in the development of a strategic community fire risk assessment and mitigation
plan.
By following the development of this process it will allow agency personnel and the public to understand
the compromises that result from actions and non-actions in the WUI zone and develop a means to evaluate
consequences of treatments in terms of future landscape conditions.
Enclosure 3C - Project Work Form
Tasks
Time Frame
Responsible Party
2 days. Review potential sites using GIS.
March 1-15
PI, Principal Investigator, George
Wooten
5 days. Visit potential sites and select most
appropriate sites based on knowledge of past
treatments.
April 1-30
PI
5 days. Establish study and control plots using
random sampling techniques.
April 30 - May 15
PI
45 days. Gather field data including stand
structure and vegetative composition, using
standard ground-truthing and silvicultural
procedures. Enter field data into databases.
May 15 - August 30
PI, additional assistants where
advantageous
15 days. Link spatial databases of land cover,
field data and fire behavior fuel models. Run
the fire behavior models to determine current
conditions. Compare treatments with control
samples.
August 30 - November 30
PI
15 days. Write report burn CD and post online
through network server. Generate maps for
public presentation(s).
December 1 - February 15
PI
3 days. Present report in a public meeting.
February 1 - March 15
PI
Total 90 days.
Enclosure 3D Project Budget
Cost Category
Description
Federal
Agency
Applicant
Personnel
Partner 1
Partner 2
Total
WDFW Okanogan County Planning Dept
Principal Investigator
$14,400.00
$14,400.00
Subtotal
$14,400.00
Fringe Benefits
Subtotal
Travel
by vehicle to sites
$500.00
$200.00
$700.00
Subtotal
$500.00
Equipment
RAID network server
Computer system
Arcview Spatial Analyst
map printing and website
Subtotal
$2,000.00
$3,000.00
$3,000.00
$500.00
$2,000.00
$3,000.00
$3,000.00
$500.00
8,500.00
Supplies
Office
Wide-format printer
$500.00
$2,000.00
$500.00
$2,000.00
$2,500.00
Subtotal
Contractual
Subtotal
Other
Subtotal
Total Costs
$18,900.00
$6,500.00
$200.00
$500.00 $26,100.00
Project (Program) Income1
(using deductive alternative)
1
Program income is the gross revenue generated by a grant or cooperative agreement supported activity during the life of
the grant. Program income can be made by recipients from fees charged for conference or workshop attendance, from rental
fees earned from renting out real property or equipment acquired with grant or cooperative agreement funds, or from the sale
of commodities or items developed under the grant or cooperative agreement. The use of Program Income during the
project period may require prior approval by the granting agency.