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Enclosure 3A - Project Summary Form
NATIONAL FIRE PLAN COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE AND WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE PROJECTS
Application for Wildland Urban Interface Fuels / Education and
Prevention / Community Planning for Fire Protection Projects
Applicant
Applicant/Organization: University of Oregon
Phone: (541) 346-5131
FAX: (541) 346-5138
Email:karen_findtner@orsa.uoregon.edu
Address (Street or P. O. Box, City, State, Zip): Office of Research Services & Administration, 5219 University of Oregon, Eugene,
OR 97403-5219
Project Coordinator
Project Coordinator (Name and Title): Charles Spencer
Organization/Jurisdiction: Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon
Phone: 541-346-0676
FAX: 541-346-2040
Email:cspencer@oregon.uoregon.edu
Project Information
Project Title: Building community and interagency capacity for employment results monitoring of the National Fire Plan
Project Start: September 15, 2002
Project End: September 14, 2003
Federal Funding Request: $70,000
Total Project Funding: $88,254
Are you submitting multiple projects? If so, please explain and prioritize: No
Brief Project Description:
This project will help increase community and agency capacity to provide quality jobs while meeting other goals of the National
Fire Plan by providing community-based and regional monitoring tools. Monitoring is the way that communities and agencies can
to evaluate progress, learn from experiments, and make mid-course corrections. This project will: (1) provide technical assistance
to community-based efforts to monitor employment results, and (2) expand regional monitoring and evaluation of the economic
effects of the National Fire Plan.
To assist at the community level, we will revise and widely disseminate our employment results monitoring guide and expand our
technical assistance from two to three communities. At the regional level, we will build on our current regional economic
monitoring of the National Fire Plan by: (1) working with the federal agencies to incorporate lessons from EWP and agency
monitoring into future planning, (2) identifying monitoring gaps and strategies to fill those gaps, and (3) expanding EWP
monitoring to include grants to agencies such as the Oregon Department of Forestry.
The project will help communities and agencies to: (1) understand progress towards quality jobs in ecosystem management; (2)
focus contractor and worker assistance to meet real needs; (3) focus procurement innovation to provide quality jobs for rural
communities and forest workers.
Project Location: OR & WA, emphasis on E. OR.
County: Lane County
Congressional District: OR 4
Project Type: Check appropriate project type. More than one type may be checked. If only Box (4) is checked, use Enclosure 4.
(1)
(2)
Wildland Urban Interface Fuels Project
Wildland Urban Interface Education and Prevention Project
(3)
(4)
Community Planning for Fire Protection Project
Fuels Utilization and Marketing Project
If the applicant is an unincorporated area, define the geographic area being represented:
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:
 project location
Address these
 project implementation
items as
 anticipated outcomes
applicable:
 measures and reporting
 partners





project income
project time frames
specify types of activities and equipment used
amount or extent of actions (acres, number of homes, etc)
environmental, cultural and historical resource requirements
Response:
National Fire Plan (NFP) and the Western Governors Association’s Ten-year Comprehensive seek fire hazard reduction grounded
in restoration principles and enhanced local workforce and contractor capacity for ecosystem management. Progress toward
community ecological and economic benefit requires monitoring that informs strategic planning and guides mid-course corrections.
Using National Fire Plan funds, over the past 7 month, the Ecosystem Workforce Program (EWP) has been: (1) developing an
employment results monitoring guide for rural communities and local agency partners, (2) assisting partners in Lake County and
northeastern Oregon in implementing NFP employment results monitoring, (3) conducting regional-level (OR &WA) monitoring of
procurement and hiring by the Forest Service, BLM, and US Fish & Wildlife Service. In addition, in May, we will hold a
workshop to introduce our employment results guide to communities and partnerships in central Oregon.
Our efforts to date suggest several key next steps. At a local level, lower capacity communities need technical assistance to develop
quality jobs programs that incorporate monitoring and evaluation. At a regional level, agency partners and non-profits need to
evaluate the results of EWP and agency monitoring, and consider how lessons learned can be incorporated into future planning and
implementation. In addition, partners need to identify monitoring gaps and develop systems to implement more effective NFP
monitoring. For example, although the FY 2001 Performance Review: National Fire Plan tracks accomplishments and the NFP
Acquisition & Assistance Management Review identifies problems and opportunities in NFP contracting, the effects of the NPF on
rural communities and forest workers needs to be better understood. Finally, regional monitoring of the economic effects of the
NFP needs to be expanded to include the substantial funds passed as grants to the Oregon Department of Forestry, other agencies,
and non-profit organizations. To these ends, we are requesting $70,000 out of a total project budget of $88,254 to undertake the
following between September 15, 2002 and September 14, 2003:
Community-based monitoring

Revise the employment results monitoring guide based on our experience using the guide to provide technical assistance.

Disseminate the revised guide via World Wide Web, mail, and regional and national conferences to community forestry
organizations, economic development organizations, local government, and natural resource agencies.

Expand technical assistance to include one additional medium/low capacity community in the integration of employment
result monitoring into local efforts to build contractor and worker capacity to capture and perform high quality fuels hazard
reduction work.
Regional-level monitoring

Work with non-profit and agency partners to incorporate monitoring lessons into future planning and implementation.

Work at a regional level with key NFP agencies to identify gaps in monitoring and develop strategies to fill those gaps.

Repeat the most effective components of the regional monitoring for fiscal year 2002.

Expand the regional monitoring to include funds granted through agencies such as the Oregon Department of Forestry
Our partners in this project include: regional offices of the Forest Service, BLM, and USFWS, Lake County Resources, Inc.,
Sustainable Northwest, Fremont National Forest, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Blue Mountain Demonstration Area, Grande
Ronde Model Watershed Program, Wallowa Resources, Central Oregon Intergovermental Council, Central Oregon Partnership for
Wildfire Risk Reduction, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Watershed Research and Training
Center.
The outcomes of this project will be: (1) increased community and regional monitoring of jobs outcomes; (2) increased ability of
rural communities to undertake quality ecosystem management including fire hazard reduction; (3) increased ability of agency,
community, and nonprofit partners to direct programs to meet the ecological and economic objectives of the National Fire Plan.
We will provide a final report that includes a description tasks undertaken and lessons learned. In addition, the report will include a
copy of the revised employment results monitoring guide, a comprehensive discussion of the results of the regional monitoring
effort, and a discussion of the gaps identified in employment results monitoring and strategies to address those gaps.
Enclosure 3B (Page 2 of 3) - Project Evaluation Criteria
Applications for funding must include narrative responses that address the following four criteria. Within each criterion, subcriteria are listed in descending order of importance. Limit your responses to the areas provided.
1. Reducing Fire Risk. (40 points)
A. Describe how the proposal promotes reduction of risk in high hazard areas or communities.
B. Describe how the proposed project benefits resources on federal land or adjacent non-federal land, or how it protects the safety
of communities.
C. To what extent does the project implement or create a cooperative fuels treatment plan or community fire strategy (include
evidence of the plan if it already exists)?
D. Explain to what extent the affected community or proponent has been involved or plans to involve the affected community in a
qualified fuels education program (e.g., FIREWISE).
E. Explain how the proposal (a) leads to, enhances or restores a local fire-adapted ecosystem, and/or (b) mitigates or leads to the
mitigation of hazardous fuel conditions.
F. How will the proposed treatments be maintained over time?
Response:
This project will help reduce fire risk by providing rural communities with tools to evaluate local business and workforce capacity
for fire hazard reduction, and to plan to increase capacity as needed. As communities develop fire strategies or cooperative fuel
treatments, they can use our guide to incorporate monitoring to ensure that work is structured to match and develop local capacity
and to track the economic effects of implementation. Our guide also recommends processes for tracking the economic health,
administrative needs, skill-base, and equipment of contracting businesses. Communities can use the information to target business
and worker development efforts. Further, this information can be used to help agencies structure contracts (especially size and
duration) to match local capacity. This sort of monitoring helps maximize rural community benefit while developing local capacity
to implement fuel reduction projects.
Our technical assistance is focused in communities with high fire hazard areas—Lake County and Northeast Oregon. Our third
community will also be one with high hazard areas, perhaps in central Oregon.
Finally, our guide is being developed and disseminated in conjunction with a guide that the Watershed Research and Training
Center, in Hayfork California is developing that will include information about monitoring investment, by-product utilization, and
ecological effects. This will allow communities to consider not only the economic effects but also the ecological consequences of
fire hazard reduction and other National Fire Plan projects.
2. Increasing local capacity. (30 points)
A. How would the proposal improve or lead to the improvement of the local economy in terms of jobs and sustainable economic
activity? How many jobs are expected to be created or retained and for how long (please distinguish between essentially yearround and seasonal jobs)?
B. To what extent will this project be offered to serve as a model for other communities?
C. Will biomass or forest fuels be utilized; if so, in what manner and how much?
Response:
As suggested above, this project will increase community capacity and improve the local economy by helping communities and
agencies evaluate the effects of their fire hazard reduction efforts on the local economy and considering how agency and
community action might increase those effects.
Our guide and technical assistance helps communities set goals and develop strategies for developing a local quality jobs program.
It then suggests processes for measuring progress and provides sample measures and information about how to collect data related
to those measures. This allows communities to evaluate progress towards quality jobs and make adjustments to improve the
effectiveness of quality jobs programs.
Our employment results guide is designed as a model for a wide variety of communities, especially those with large amounts of
federal land. In addition to the communities where we will provide concentrated technical assistance, we will disseminate the guide
widely via the Internet, mail, and at regional and national meetings and conferences such as the annual meeting of the National
Network of Forest Practitioners. We will also use the our existing networks and those of the Oregon Economic and Community
Development Department to disseminate our guide to rural development practitioners and local government entities in Oregon.
Enclosure 3B (Page 3 of 3) – Project Evaluation Criteria
3. Increasing interagency and intergovernmental coordination. (15 Points)
A. Describe how this project implements a local intergovernmental strategy plan, or creates such a plan. Describe the plan if it
already exists.
B. Explain the level of cooperation, coordination or strategic planning among federal, state, tribal, local government and
community organizations. List the cooperators.
Response:
Both the community-level monitoring assistance and the regional monitoring depend on and build interagency collaboration. Our
guides and technical assistance involve federal, state, and local agencies at the community level. Local agency personnel work with
partners to develop the monitoring plan; agencies provide much of the information required for the monitoring.
Our regional level monitoring involves the Forest Service, BLM, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Agency personnel helped
develop the monitoring plan and have provided key data about agency hiring and procurement. Our hiring monitoring will look at,
for example, new hires, local hires, wages, and job duration. Our procurement analysis will consider, for example, the amount and
type of work contracted, how contracts were structured, and the location and type of contractors awarded work.
Discussions with agency personnel along with non-profit partners have suggested the next steps proposed here. We plan to expand
the monitoring to include funds granted to the Oregon Department of Forestry and other key agencies. The BLM, Forest Service,
and US FWS will also be involved in the process of identifying lessons learned from the EWP and agency monitoring, identifying
monitoring gaps, and developing strategies to fill those gaps.
Our cooperators in this effort will include: regional offices of the Forest Service, BLM, and USFWS, Oregon Department of
Forestry, Lake County Resources, Inc., Sustainable Northwest, Fremont National Forest, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest,
Grande Ronde Model Watershed Program, Wallowa Resources, Central Oregon Intergovermental Council, Watershed Research
and Training Center, and Oregon Economic and Community Development Department.
4. Expanding Community Participation. (15 Points)
A. To what extent have interested people and communities been provided an opportunity to become informed and involved in this
proposal?
B. Describe the extent of local support for the project, including any cost-sharing arrangements.
C. What are the environmental, social and educational benefits of the project?
Response:
In addition to the local and regional agency involvement described above, our work with local partners in Northeast Oregon and
Lake County and other community organizations and partnerships such as the Watershed Research and Training Center, and
Central Oregon Partnership for Wildfire Risk Reduction and federal agencies led to the next steps proposed here.
As suggested above, numerous local and regional partners will be collaborating with us in both the regional and community
monitoring projects. The Ecosystem Workforce Program will provide a 20% match for this project, using funds from the Ford
Foundation. Lake County Resources, Inc., our partners in Northeast Oregon (Grand Ronde Model Watershed Program, Wallowa
Resources, Blue Mountain Demonstration Area, etc.), and the Watershed Research and Training Center in Hayfork, CA will be
implanting quality jobs monitoring with our assistance. We will develop a similar arrangement with local partners in the low/mid
capacity community where we expand our technical assistance efforts.
Benefits of the Project: This grant will provide tools for communities, non-profits, and agencies to collaboratively track progress
towards the development of quality jobs in ecosystem management, especially related to the National Fire Plan. With this
information, communities and local agencies will be able to: (1) understand progress towards quality jobs in ecosystem
management; (2) focus contractor and worker assistance to meet real needs; (3) focus procurement innovation to provide quality
jobs for rural communities and forest workers.
Enclosure 3C - Project Work Form
Tasks
Revise and distribute employment results
monitoring guide
--Revise
--Disseminate guide via World Wide Web,
mail & conference attendance
Provide technical assistance in development
and implementation employment results
monitoring program
--assist Lake County; Northeast Oregon
--assist new community
Repeat effective components of regional of
FY 2001 monitoring for FY 2002
--Develop research plan
--Gather data
--Analyze
--Report
Identify gaps in monitoring and develop
strategies to identify gaps.
--Meet with regional agency and non-profit
partners to review state of NFP monitoring
--Develop strategies for filling gaps
Expand regional monitoring to granted funds
to agencies such as the Oregon Department of
Forestry
--Develop research plan
--Gather data
--Analyze
--Report
Time Frame
Responsible Party
Director of Research & Policy
supervising a graduate student
--September-December 2002
--January 2003-September 2003
EWP Program Director
--September 2002-August 2003
--December 2002-September 2003
Director of Research & Policy
supervising a graduate student
--September-October 2002
--November 2002-January 2003
--January 2003- May 2003
--July 2003
Director of Research & Policy
--September-December 2002
--January 2003-September 2003
Director of Research & Policy
supervising a graduate student
--September-December 2002
--November 2002-April 2003
--April 2003- June 2003
--August 2003
Enclosure 3D - Project Budget
Cost Category
Description
Federal
Agency
Personnel
Salary
27,549
Subtotal
Fringe Benefits
Fringe benefits
Subtotal
27,549
Applicant
Partner 2
0
10,166
0
37,715
0
0
23,189
0
23,189
0
0
5,200
0
5,200
4,001
0
4,001
Travel
4,800
Subtotal
4,800
400
0
400
Equipment
0
0
0
0
Subtotal
Supplies
Services and Supplies
Subtotal
3,649
3,649
1,222
0
1,222
0
Contractual
0
4,871
0
4,871
0
0
0
0
Subtotal
Other
Indirect Cost
(Facilities & Administration)
Subtotal
Total
37,715
10,166
19,188
19,188
Partner 1
The Ford
Foundation
14,815
0
17,280
0
17,280
2,465
14,815
0
2,465
Total Costs
70,000
0
18,254
0
88,254
Project (Program) Income1
0
0
0
0
0
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.