Pacific Northwest Coordination Group Steering Committee (PNWCG)
150 Harrison St, Portland Oregon
August 24, 2011
Final meeting notes
Attendees: Joe Shramek, WA DNR Acting Chair, Leanne Mruzik BLM, Ken Snell, USDA FS; Sue Husari, NPS; Pam Ensley, USFWS; Paul Bell, ODF; Nancy Hirsch, ODF; Cory Winnie, BIA, Pat Kelly Executive Director, Jan Mathis, Recording Secretary; presenters: Dale Guenther, USFS, GIS WT; Lauren Maloney, BLM, Communications, Prevention WT; Bob Young, Chair TWT; Joel Rogauskas TWT; Louisa Evers, BLM-SORO.
Decisions and taskings
Tracking Commitments (pg 2)
Ø Leanne Mruzik to follow up with Carl Gossard on Chief Seidel’s award letter.
Safety and Health topic (pg 3)
Ø Concurrence from the PNWCG SC to take a pause in the Health and Safety WT’s work. Ken Snell to write the letter and send out for a 72-hour review.
Ø One day focus meeting scheduled for Tues, Oct 18 at 9am at NWCC.
Ø Sue Husari will put together a proposal for the meeting and send out.
310-1 currency standards TO 1106-02 TWT (pg 3 & 4)
Ø There is consensus among the steering committee in support of the work.
Ø Leanne Mruzik will draft up a response and send to Pat by Friday, Aug 26.
2011 ODF Crew Agreement Reimbursements (pg 4)
Ø Bob Young to craft a task order to the Incident Business Practices Working Team to review this issue and develop recommendations for alternative funding methods for future years.
NWS Letter (pg 5)
Ø Dan O’Brien will draft another letter in response to the NWS.
NWCC Staff Cuts (pg 5)
Ø Dan O’Brien and Dave Quinn to develop a budget reflecting a reduction of 10% to 15% for 2012 or 2013 and what the ramifications would be for the September PNWCG SC meeting.
OR Geo Board By Laws (pg 6)
Ø Joe Shramek to draft a response letter in appreciation and in recognition of the Oregon Interagency IMT Geographic Board.
PSIC Future (pg 6)
Ø Ken Snell (FS) to arrange a meeting with Sue Husari (FWS), Joe Shramek, Gerry Day (WA DNR) and Dan O’Brien (NWCC) on this issue.
NMAC / GMAC Meeting (pg 6)
Ø By October meeting, please bring your issues that need to be discussed and addressed at the NMAC/GMAC meeting.
Leader’s Intent Joe Shramek
Today’s agenda Finalize
(Handout 1 – PNWCG SC Meeting agenda, 1 p)
Current Task Orders / Tracking Joe Shramek / Pat Kelly
(Handout 2 – Task Order Tracking, 1 p)
(Handout 3 – Tracking Commitments, 1 p)
0904-02 Holdover
1008-04 Permanent tasking
1011-12 October 2011
1104-01 Overdue
1106-02 Completed
Tracking Commitments
1) Set date at Sept 30
2) Done
3) Done
4) Pending (wait until Sept, Leanne to follow up with Carl)
5) Future topic regarding liability while managing an incident for another agency
6) Ken to follow up
7) New date Feb 2012
8) Done
9) Paul to input today in hot topics
10) Done
11) In progress
12) Ongoing
Question: Should awards come out of NWCC budget? Answer yes, Dan to get commemorative blanket purchase information from Pam.
Ø Leanne to follow up with Carl on Chief Seidel’s award letter.
July’s notes Jan Mathis
(Handout 4 – PNWCG SC Meeting July 20, 2011 draft notes v.1, 5 pp)
Health and Safety WT Ken Snell
Suggestions:
· PNWCG Steering Committee could take on the leadership role to make the connections with the different working teams, agencies and advisory councils.
What are we doing to promote our shared vision of what we want to accomplish in the Pacific Northwest on:
Learning/safety culture
High Reliability Organization
Risk Management
Ø Concurrence from the PNWCG SC to take a pause in the Health and Safety WT’s work. Ken Snell to write the letter and send out for a 72-hour review.
Ø One day focus meeting scheduled for Tues, Oct 18 at 9am at NWCC.
Ø Sue Husari will put together a proposal for the meeting and send out.
Map of Fuel Treatment, Grants & Fire History Dale Guenther / Lauren Maloney
(Handout 5 – Developing Fire Resiliency in the PNW through National Fire Plan Grants, 2 pp)
(Handout 6 – National Fire Plan Community Assistance Grants 2001-2011, 1 p)
· Show only FS Grants to Western States
· Show Location
· Amount of grant
· Display which of 4 categories of fuel treatment type
· Year of treatment
On another map we will include F&WS, NPS, and Tribes fuel treatment projects.
When completed we will send a pdf to the PNWCG chair.
We will also provide a summary report of the Fuel Treatment Effectiveness data.
The working team will arrange to have this information appear on a regular basis in the Annual Accomplishment Report.
Lunch at noon, reconvene at 1245 hrs
310-1 currency standards TO 1106-02 TWT Bob Young / Joel Rogauskas
(Handout 7 – Comments of Proposed Currency Requirements in 310-1 TO 1106-02, 6 pp)
Bob and Joel got a good response from subject matter experts. They can provide more detailed survey results if any steering committee members would like to view.
Ø There is consensus among the steering committee in support of the work.
Ø Leanne Mruzik will draft up a response and send to Pat by Friday, Aug 26.
2011 ODF Crew Agreement Reimbursements Paul Bell
(Handout 8 – Reimbursement Issue Paper, Interagency Firefighting Crew Agreement, 9 pp)
Propose to take another look at how costs are distributed. The ODF has data based on 9 years of crew usage, and using that information, distribute costs out accordingly.
Ø Bob Young to craft a task order to the Incident Business Practices Working Team to review this issue and develop recommendations for alternative funding methods for future years.
Retardant EIS Ken Snell / Louisa Evers
(Handout 9 – PNWCG Briefing Paper, 2 pp)
The Forest Service Retardant DEIS is in draft form and out for public comment. A final decision will be issued at the end of this year, Dec 31, 2011.
Among the concerns:
There will be the potential of more acres burned. More fires would escape initial attack. What are the effects on the species if habitat is lost?
This doesn’t affect the other agencies, however, once it’s finalized, other federal agencies may follow.
Cohesive Strategy Pam Ensley
The geographic areas have been divided into three regions. The information from all three regions to be submitted to WFLC and in turn, WFLC will compile the information into one document.
From the Western Region perspective, some of the comments from stakeholders:
· Restoration and maintaining resilient landscapes
· More effective use of current resources
· Creating fire adaptive communities – rewarding those communities who are fire adaptive
· Response to wildfires
· Jurisdictional area (no man’s land), goal is to have all lands protected
· Communication plan
Reports to be delivered to WFLC by Sept 30, the next step will be implementation.
Risk Management Ken Snell
(Handout 10 – Strategic Risk Assessment Summary, 1 p)
Working to improve the thought process on Risk Management to make it:
· Simple
· Consistent
· Transparent
Would like something that can be shared with local community leaders, politicians and partners.
The process in a nutshell:
Personnel discuss the following at the unit level (on a piece of paper on the hood of a vehicle) with a recorder.
1. Assessment
2. Analysis
3. Communication
4. Sharing
The recorder takes the information and creates a briefing paper with each item as a heading. This gets signed by the Line Officer. Then it’s input into WFDSS.
This process will take changing the cultural level thinking at the Forest Service (agency) level.
NWS Letter Joe Shramek / Dan O’Brien
(Handout 11 – Response to Carl Gossard from Vickie Nadolski at the National Weather Service, 1 p)
Ø Dan O’Brien will draft another letter in response to the NWS.
Hot Topics
NWCC Staff Cuts Dan O’Brien
Leanne Mruzik will follow up with Mike Haske on proposed NWCC staff cuts. More information will be brought to the next meeting.
Develop a plan on what the basic needs are in order to be an effective organization. Use the NWCC budget, discuss concerns with Directors.
Ø Dan O’Brien and Dave Quinn to develop a budget reflecting a reduction of 10% to 15% for 2012 or 2013 and what the ramifications would be for the September PNWCG SC meeting.
Other agencies will bring in a snapshot of their budgets for discussion.
ODF CRNW Input
(Handout 12 – Request to provide guidance regarding use of CRNW’s in the Northwest, 2 pp)
This is on the agenda for next month.
OR Geo Board By Laws
(Handout 13 – Oregon Interagency Incident Management Geographic Board, 4 pp)
Ø Joe Shramek to draft a response letter in appreciation and in recognition of the Oregon Interagency IMT Geographic Board.
PSIC Future Ken Snell
Ø Ken Snell (FS) to arrange a meeting with Sue Husari (FWS), Joe Shramek, Gerry Day (WA DNR) and Dan O’Brien (NWCC) on this issue.
NMAC / GMAC Meeting Dan O’Brien
Ø By October meeting, please bring your issues that need to be discussed and addressed at the NMAC/GMAC meeting.
AAR Joe Shramek
+ Lunch at 11:30am
+ Location
+ Quality of work & folks
+ TWT product
+ Fuels & GIS products
-Parking
-Lots of issues without solutions, what can we focus on to make positive changes:
Successional planning
Dispatch
-What can we take control of
Adjourned at 1500 hrs.
Handouts
Handout 1 – PNWCG SC Meeting agenda, 1 p
Handout 2 – Task Order Tracking, 1 p
Handout 3 – Tracking Commitments, 1 p
Handout 4 – PNWCG SC Meeting July 20, 2011 draft notes v.1, 5 pp
Handout 5 – Developing Fire Resiliency in the PNW through National Fire plan Grants, 2 pp
Handout 6 – National Fire Plan Community Assistance Grants 2001-2011, 1 p
Handout 7 – Comments of Proposed Currency Requirements in 310-1 TO 1106-02, 6 pp
Handout 8 – Reimbursement Issue Paper, Interagency Firefighting Crew Agreement, 9 pp
Handout 9 – PNWCG Briefing Paper, 2 pp
Handout 10 – Strategic Risk Assessment Summary, 1 p
Handout 11 – Response from Vickie Nadolski at the National Weather Service, 1 p
Handout 12 – Request to provide guidance regarding use of CRNW’s in the Northwest, 2 pp
Handout 13 – Oregon Interagency Incident Management Geographic Board, 4 pp
Topic postponed until next month: Letter to NWCM-AC-Vision (Dan O’Brien)
8.24.11 PNWCG SC Meeting, pg 2