Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy
Northeast Region
Helicopter flies over a forest fire.
Pagami Creek Fire, Superior NF, Minnesota, September 2011. (Photo: Kari Greer)

Resilient Landscapes - Fire-Adapted Communities - Safe and Effective Wildfire Response  
The Northeast Regional Strategy Committee (NE RSC) provides executive leadership, coordination, and guidance to carry out the Northeast Regional Action Plan while providing a forum for members to guide strategic direction for fire and land management activities. The NE RSC continues to collaboratively recognize, support, and help with National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy goals and implementation efforts.

Brad Simpkins, New Hampshire State Forester
In This Issue
Northeast Region Cohesive Strategy Key Contacts

Chair

Chief Fire Warden

Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation

 

Maureen Brooks

Vice-Chair

U.S. Forest Service Northeastern Area S&PF

 

Larry Mastic

Coordinator, Northeast Region

Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy

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July 2017

Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors Meet in Maryland  
51st Annual Meeting Focused on Partnerships, Communication, and Cooperation

Larry Mastic, NE RSC Coordinator

A group of people pose in front of a large piece of equipment.
Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors, colleagues, and partners pose for a photo on June 21, 2017, at Sandy Point State Park, MD. (U.S. Forest Service photo by Maris Gabliks)

In the culmination of their 50th anniversary celebration, the Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors (NFFS) and their many partners in wildland fire met in Hanover, MD, June 19-23, 2017. The staff members of the Maryland Forest Service were excellent hosts for an impressive agenda of featured speakers and timely presentations.

Northeast Regional Strategy Committee Meets in Maryland  

Larry Mastic, NE RSC Coordinator

A man stands next to a table in a meeting.
Dave Celino (standing), Chief Fire Warden for Massachusetts ans NE RSC Chair, welcomes members. (U.S. Forest Service photo by Maris Gabliks)

NE RSC members received information about and discussed a number of ongoing efforts:
  • Northeast Wildfire Preparedness Guide (Larry Mastic, NE RSC Coordinator)
  • LANDFIRE (Megan Sebasky, NE Regional LANDFIRE Coordinator)
  • Communications (Maureen Brooks, U.S. Forest Service, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry and NE RSC Vice-Chair; and Kristen Miller, Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters Policy and Communications Director)  
  • Wildland Fire Leadership Council Status Update (Mike Zupko, Executive Manager)
  • New Hampshire Prescribed Fire Local Assistance Project (Brad Simpkins, NH State Forester)
The Pine Barrens & Fire: Foresters on the Role of Prescribed Burns
East End Beacon logo. 
Posted by Beth Young

June 7, 2017

A firefighter looks at a smoky prescribed burn.
Conducting a prescribed burn at the New York Wildfire & Incident Management Academy in the fall of 2015. (Courtesy photo by the East End Beacon)

In the world of wildland firefighting, there are vast acreages of uninhabited fuel-filled forests out west, with a well-trod history of fire and management, and then there are areas known as the WUI, the Wildland-Urban Interface, a quagmire of human dynamics and its attendant politics, where only the bravest venture. 

In its simplest terms, the WUI is the area where human settlements abut large swaths of wilderness. A forest fire in the wilderness can be contained through methods ranging from cutting fire lines around an existing fire, which breaks the fire's fuel supply, to burning areas ahead of the fire, in the hopes that lack of fuel will cause the fire to peter out. Those methods prove less-than-ideal when human homes are in the path of the fire.

Because of its dense population in the midst of the fire-dependent Pine Barrens, Long Island's wildfires happen on the edge of the WUI, making our wildfire management a patchwork of response primarily from volunteer fire departments, intent on their mission of protecting human life and property, and from foresters trained in the role of fire in the ecology of the wilderness.

The human dynamic of the WUI has made wildfire firefighting on Long Island an aggressive enterprise ---      fires are put out quickly to protect the public safety, but deep within the forests, fuels are piling up in the absence of a normal cycle of burning, increasing the potential severity of future wildfires.

Foresters see these as a prime case for the necessity of prescribed burning, but on Long Island, this still remains a controversial suggestion.

New GAO Report on Wildland Fire Risk Reduction Released
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed implementation of the Cohesive Strategy last year and has released its findings. The three Regional Coordinators were interviewed by the GAO Wildland Fire Team and provided input and examples of implementation from our regions. View documents and information from the report. Read what GAO found.


Strawberry Fire Learning Review Released
Banner for the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center.

June 9, 2017

This week, the Forest Service released the final results of a Coordinated Response Protocol learning review about a tragic event that occurred August 13, 2016, when Justin Randal Beebe lost his life while cutting a hazard tree during suppression efforts on the Strawberry Fire, Great Basin National Park, Nevada.

This report is the product of an interagency Coordinated Response Protocol Team convened under a delegation of authority from the USDA Forest Service and the National Park Service. Information contained in the report is the result of multiple site visits; interviews of personnel on the ground; and analysis of supporting materials such as photos, maps, qualification records, and dispatch logs.

The intent of this review process is to encourage learning around these themes within the wildland-fire-environment context. Wildland firefighting agencies will use this information to evaluate practices and identify learning tools for the next generation of firefighters. View the report in its entirety on the Wildfire Lessons Web site.

Wildfires Pollute Much More than Previously Thought
Science Daily logo.




Georgia Institute of Technology

June 14, 2017

This is an excerpt about prescribed burnings from this full article about wildfire pollution:

As global warming expands wildfires in size and number, the ensuing pollution stands to grow along with them. Stepping up professional human-initiated burnings may help cut these emissions, the study suggested.

So-called prescribed burnings prevent or reduce wildfires, and they appear to produce far less pollution per unit area than wildfires, the study said.

"A prescribed fire might burn five tons of biomass fuel per acre, whereas a wildfire might burn 30," said Yokelson, who has dedicated decades of research to biomass fires. "This study shows that wildfires also emit three times more aerosol per ton of fuel burned than prescribed fires."

While still more needs to be known about professional prescribed burnings' emissions, this new research makes clear that wildfires burn much more and pollute much more. The data will also help improve overall estimates of wildfire emissions."

Fire prevention professionals follow stringent rules to carry out prescribed burns to avoid calamity and sending pollution downwind into populated areas. The researchers do not recommend that inexperience people burn biomass, as this contributes to air pollution and can trigger tragic blazes, including wildfires.

Midland Hills Residents Work Together to Achieve State's First Firewise Community Designation
K. Janis Esch, The Southern

May 13, 2017

MAKANDA  ---     On a sunny Saturday morning at the edge of the Shawnee National Forest, the Midland Hills Country Club neighborhood subdivision officially became Illinois' first nationally designated Firewise Community.

Group of people posing for a picture in front of trees.
Midland Hills residents gathered to celebrate the community's new Firewise designation. (Courtesy photo by K. Janis Esch, The Southern)

Makanda Township is especially vulnerable to wildfires because it is home to the state's highest concentration of wildland-urban interface, said Jennie Snyder, coordinator of the township's Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Wildland-urban interface refers to the zone where structures and human development intermingle with wildlands.

"Humans are the main cause of wildfire in the U.S., the number one cause. In Makanda Township, we have a lot of woods and we have a lot of people living in the woods.
That's why there's a higher risk in Makanda than in other locations in Southern Illinois," Snyder said.

US Geological Survey Using Drones to Study Prescribed Burns
UAS Magazine logo.





June 7, 2017

A drone hovers over the ground in a prescribed fire.
A U.S. Geological Survey drone hovers in a forest over a prescribed burn area to gather data scientists use to study fire intensity and emissions. (Courtesy photo by U.S. Geological Survey)
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists and its partners are using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to gather data on the prescribed burns used to protect lives and property during wildfires
.

The program combines expertise from multiple USGS partners with the goal of reducing the harmful effects of smoke impacts during planned burns. UAS are used to collect data on fire intensity and emissions.
Joint Meeting NAFSE/Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact
Igniting Exchange Bridgine the Gap Between Science and Management meeting banner.

Get this on your calendar now!

Look for an event Web page soon. Start thinking now about whether you would like to give a talk. This is a great opportunity for managers to show scientists what kind of research would be useful to them and for scientists to explain the usefulness of their research.

Conferences, Meetings, and Training Opportunities

   

Conferences and Meetings

--Regional--

2017 Crew Boss Academy
October 4-13, 2017
Fort Custer Training Center, MI
Nomination Form Deadline: August 18, 2017

--National-- 
September 18-21, 2017
Charleston, WV

FireVision 20/20: A 20-Year Reflection and Look into the Future
7th International Fire Ecology & Management Congress

Held concurrently with the 2nd Applied Fire Science Workshop
Hosted by the Association for Fire Ecology in cooperation with the Southern Fire Exchange
November 28 - December 2, 2017
Orlando, FL

2nd Annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop
"Lessons for the Field"
March 26-29, 2018
Peppermill Resort Spa Casino
Reno, NV

The Northeast Regional Strategy Committee (NE RSC) delivers articles and stories each month that demonstrate the collaborative efforts of agencies, organizations and communities supporting and promoting the three goals of the Cohesive Strategy: Restoring Resilient Landscapes, Creating Fire Adapted Communities and Responding to Wildfire. 

 

This news update is our primary communication tool with our partners and the public. Looking for more Northeast Region Cohesive Strategy information or past published news update issues? Visit this Web site.

 

Does your agency, organization, or community have a project or event you'd like to see featured in the NE RSC News Update? 

 

Tell us about it! Just contact  Larry Mastic .
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