Northeast Region Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy banner with a graphic of the 20 states of the Northeast and Midwest and National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy logo.
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

Important Links



Forest Fire Compacts





Quick Links


Science and Joint Fire Science Consortiums & Exchanges







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July 2018

An Interview with Bill Brash
 
Devin Wanner, Public Affairs Specialist, U.S. Forest Service, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry

July 2018

Biography
A man stands in front of an active prescribed fire.
Bill Brash stands in front of a prescribed fire conducted in Whiting, NJ, during February 2018. (Courtesy photo by John Cowie)

Bill Brash is the Founder and current President of the New Jersey Fire Safety Council. He also runs Shelterwood Forest Managers in Freehold, NJ. Prior to starting the business, he began a 30-year career with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture as a District Forester in Morris County. He finished his career as the Director for the Mercer County Soil Conservation District. He was elected as a Fellow in the Society of American Foresters in 2006. From 2010 through 2015 he was the Community Wildfire Protection Plan Consulting Planner for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and serves as a section B10 crewmember.

Bill graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor's degree in Forest Resource Management. He earned his Master's degree in Environmental Science from Montclair State College.

Read the full Bill Brash interview.

Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors and Northeast Regional Strategy Committee Meet in Grafton, IL
 
Larry Mastic, NE RSC Coordinator

July 5, 2018

A man stands in front of an open area with forests and a river in the background.
Chris Hespen, Site Supervisor for the Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, IL, provides the NFFS group with an overview of the natural resources and management activities conducted at the park on June 20, 2018. The Illinois River is in the background.(Courtesy photo by Larry Mastic)

During the week of June 18-22, the 52nd Annual NAASF Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors (NFFS) and Northeast Regional Strategy Committee met near the convergence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in Grafton, IL, at the scenic Pere Marquette State Park Lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s. Illinois State Forester Tom Wilson and the highly capable staff of the Illinois Division of Forest Resources hosted the meeting along with the staff of the Pere Marquette State Park.

Read the full Illinois meeting article.

Megan's Corner - July 2018
LANDFIRE logo and the text In the Northeast.
  • LANDFIRE Receives "Environmental Dream Team" Award: The Department of the Interior (DOI) Environmental Achievement Awards recognize employees, teams, and partners who have attained exceptional environmental achievements that go above and beyond the person's or team's regular, expected duties. In early June, the DOI announced that the LANDFIRE Program was recognized with the 2017 "Environmental Dream Team" award. The award acknowledges the interagency team for being environmental champions and agents of change who work across organizational boundaries to enhance environmental stewardship, create efficiencies, improve communication, avoid and address conflict at the lowest levels, and reduce environmental review times. Read more about the award.
  • Risk Assessment and Fuels: At the recent NE RSC face-to-face meeting and Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors meeting in Grafton, IL, I talked to anyone who would listen about risk assessment, focusing on hazard mapping, which typically relies on LANDFIRE data. I've spent several months digging into literature on fire risk assessments and talking with experts, and tried to present that information in a somewhat cohesive and understandable way. See my slides posted on the forum for a quick overview. But to really understand risk assessment, you'll have to do a lot of reading/watching (e.g. see  GTR-315, Wildfire Risk and Fuel Treatment Analysis Workshop). I also brought a coloring exercise for folks to start thinking about mapping fire hazard (probability of an area burning at what severity), which is typically done before a "values at risk" assessment. The exercise resulted in very fruitful conversations about hazard and how we might want to map it in the Northeastern Area. See some examples of colored maps on the forum. You can also download a map to color from the forum and submit to me whenever you please.
    • Completing a risk assessment for our region will involve calibration of the LANDFIRE fuel model data. Please let us know your knowledge of Fire Behavior Fuel Models and how we can help you learn more to make these workshops more successful. All you have to do is take 3-5 minutes to complete this survey.
    • If you'd like to be involved in discussions about wildfire risk assessment in the Northeast, please join or contact the NE RSC's risk assessment priority working group through myself, Larry Mastic, or Nan Johnson.
       
  • Updated WHAM: LANDFIRE's Web-Hosted Applications Map (WHAM!) and associated PDF table have just been reviewed and updated by The Nature Conservancy's LANDFIRE Team. Soon they will be adding more applications to the map. Let's add more from the Northeast! Please contact me with any ideas for submission.

A group of people sit in a room during a presentation.
Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors Meeting at Pere Marquette State Park, near Grafton, IL.

NE LANDFIRE Contact: Megan.Sebasky@wisconsin.gov

 
The Net Weaver: New Ways to Collaborate, Mitigation Working, Failing Toward Success, and More
Logo Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network.

June 27, 2018

#Fireadapted Models and Outreach to Know About

See how the New Jersey Fire Safety Council and the New Jersey Forest Service explain the state's controlled burn program in order to gain more public support.



Lake States Fire Science Consortium Research Brief Highlight
Lake States Fire Science Consortium logo.
Lake States Fire Science Consortium banner that highlights a research brief.
Fire seasonality (i.e., dormant-season or growing season) is an important component of historic fire regimes, but its influence on fire effects is not well understood. The season in which a fire occurs is important because the phenological stage of the plants (i.e., whether a plant is germinating, flowering, or senescing, etc.) ultimately determines the effects of the fire on the resulting plant community, and can even influence post-fire successional patterns.

The "near-boreal" red and white pine forests in Voyageurs National Park historically experienced low-intensity understory fires every 20-40 years, and stand replacing fires every 150-200 years. Historic fires occurred between May and mid-October as a result of lightning ignition (primarily during summer droughts) or anthropogenic ignition, whereas now prescribed burns are typically conducted in late spring during brief periods of time that are relatively dry. This study by Weyenberg and Pavlovic (2014) examined differences in ground layer vegetation communities among pre-burn, Spring, and Summer fire treatments in Voyageurs National Park (Minnesota, USA).

Read the rest of the research brief highlight and the full brief itself.

Full Community Costs of Wildfire
Headwaters Economics logo.
May 2018

  • Almost half of the full community costs of wildfire are paid for at the local level, including homeowners, businesses, and government agencies.
     
  • Many of these costs are due to long-term damages to community and environmental services, such as landscape rehabilitation, lost business and tax revenues, and property and infrastructure repairs.
     
  • By comparison, our analysis suggests suppression costs comprise around nine percent of total wildfire costs. The remaining costs include short-term expenses, or those costs occurring within the first six months ---    and long-term damages accruing during many months and years following a wildfire.
     
  • Communities at risk to wildfires can reduce wildfire impacts and associated costs through land use planning.
Read the full community costs of wildfire article.


Introduction to the Photoload Sampling Technique
FireScience.gov logo.
Firescience.gov Friday Flash eNews

Issue 256, June 22, 2018

Fire managers need better estimates of fuel loading so they can more accurately predict the potential fire behavior and effects of alternative fuel and ecosystem restoration treatments. This report [by Robert E. Keane and Laura J. Dickinson] presents a new fuel sampling method, called the photoload sampling technique, to quickly and accurately estimate loadings for six common surface fuel components.


Protecting People and Property through the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem
National Fire Protection Association's FIRE BREAK banner that reads Saving lives and property from wildfire. Blog Post by Mike Hazel

June 2018
Graphic showing the eight components of the National Fire Protection Association's Fire and Life Safety Ecosystem.
When it comes to fire prevention and protection in our homes and in public spaces, safety is not something we can take for granted. Reducing the risk of wildfire is no exception ---     it requires home protection, neighbor-to-neighbor conversations, and community-wide collaboration. Learn more about how it all fits together and NFPA's focus on the full Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem.



Conferences, Meetings, and Training Opportunities

   
 
Conferences and Meetings

--Regional--
 
69th Annual Commission Meeting of the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission
August 1-2, 2018
Hilton Providence
Providence, RI

October 29 - November 9, 2018
Pickens County, SC
 
Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission Wildland Fire Academy
October 29 - November 2, 2018
South Portland, ME

 
--National-- 

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 .
Northeastern Area State & Private Forestry | 603-953-3294 | rfitzhenry@fs.fed.us | https://www.fs.usda.gov/naspf/
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