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Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy
Northeast Region
Pagami Creek Fire, Superior NF, Minnesota, September 2011. (Photo: Kari Greer)
Resilient Landscapes - Fire-Adapted Communities - Safe and Effective Wildfire Response
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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
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Northeast Region Cohesive Strategy Key Contacts
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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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Forest Fire Compacts
Quick Links
Science and Joint Fire Science Consortiums & Exchanges
Social Media
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May 2017
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Northeast Regional Strategy Committee Members Present at the 1st National Cohesive Strategy Workshop
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Larry Mastic, NE RSC Coordinator
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Dr. Inga La Puma and Tom Parent at the Cohesive Strategy Workshop. (Photo: Larry Mastic, April 25, 2017)
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Dr. Inga La Puma, Science Communication Director, North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange, and Mr. Tom Parent, Executive Director, Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact, represented the Northeast Regional Strategy Committee (NE RSC) at the first annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop in Reno, NV, on April 25, 2017.
Read the full National Cohesive Strategy workshop blog post.
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The East Coast is in the Hot Seat
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Regions other than the West are now facing large wildland fires.
Madeline Bodin
April 24, 2017
The forest fire burned for four days last November. On the fire's second day, crews of federal, state and local firefighters boarded buses beyond the fire's farthest reach. There, they created a fire line, using hand tools, leaf blowers and blowtorches, a local newspaper reported. At one point, authorities considered bringing in helicopters to dump water on the fire.
By the time the fire was contained, 329 acres had been scorched. That may be small in comparison to the half-million acres that burned in the 2007 California wildfires, or the half-million acres burned in Arizona's Wallow fire in 2011. But what was surprising about this fire was that it happened in northern New Hampshire, where the climate is generally cold and wet, and wildland fires of more than 100 acres are rare.
Read the full wildfire in the East article.
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Prescription for Success at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
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 Gerald Vickers, Regional Fire Management Specialist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Northeast Region
April 2017
What does it take for a 30-year-old dream of using prescribed fire to improve wildlife habitat to become reality? Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge Manager Mike Horne knows: a lot of planning, communication, and partners
--- and more than a little patience, too.
Each of those came into play in early April at the refuge in New Jersey just 26 miles west of New York City. Horne's staff joined forces with 34 firefighters from Pennsylvania; New Jersey; the National Park Service; Albany Pine Bush; Patuxent Research Refuge; Montezuma and Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuges; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast Region fire program to successfully and safely pull off the first ever prescribed fire at the swamp.
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Prescribed Fire Sparks New Life on Old Farm
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Feeling the burn: Not just any dicamba will do as a burndown treatment ahead of soybeans. (Photo: NRCS)
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Diane Petit (Petit is the public affairs officer for NRCS in Massachusetts)
April 21, 2017
Within weeks of the prescribed burn, a more diverse mix of native plants began greening up this reforested old Massachusetts farm, reclaiming it from scrub brush.
USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service recently featured the regenerative efforts of reclaiming abandoned farmland near Ware, Mass., to productive forest use. It was done via a prescribed, controlled burn last June. Almost immediately, new life began springing up through the ashes.
Read the full prescribed fire article.
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Controlled Burn at Gettysburg Battlefield Restores History
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April 10, 2017
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Screen capture from accompanying article video.
GETTYSBURG, ADAMS COUNTY, Pa.
--- Smoke could be seen rising from the hillsides in the Gettysburg area Monday afternoon, but there was no cause for alarm.
Crews intentionally set part of Gettysburg Battlefield on fire.
The smoke covered hill at Gettysburg Battlefield is known as Little Round Top. It maintains a key spot in Civil War history for the Union Army against Confederate Troops, but Monday, the plan of attack was to save history.
National Park Service fire communication specialist Josh Manley said "this is a pretty historic day for everybody involved. I think everyone is ecstatic to be a part of, because not everybody gets the chance to say they were the first to burn Little Round Top."
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 Notes from Megan Sebasky, Northeast LANDFIRE Coordinator
May 2017
Hello everyone! This is the first of many updates on my progress, goals, and calls for action. I am 2 months into this new NE Regional LANDFIRE coordinator position and hitting the ground running, while still learning a ton along the way. I will continually be figuring out the most effective strategies to address concerns identified in the Northeast region, including, but not limited to, data quality and feedback processes. I have connected with many people and groups including the NE RSC, fire science consortia, forest fire compacts, LANDFIRE business leads, and the steering committee for my position. We have lots of ideas, and I could write novels, but have forced a very brief summary at the end of this post.
We are trying to identify people and agencies who are sitting on data goldmines and don't even know it! A great example of this is vegetation plot data. People tend to think of LANDFIRE as fire focused, but there's a lot more to it
--- especially mapping existing vegetation, which is the baseline for many other LANDFIRE datasets. Please think about your familiar states, agencies, researchers, and databases that may have useful data for this effort and send any ideas to
me. I can help with data submissions and setting up agreements for sensitive data. I want to make this EASY for you! I'm also open for any questions on datasets, requirements, processing data, or any other LANDFIRE questions. I may not know the answer, but I can find someone who does!
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Brief Summary
Priorities: Identify sources of plot data for ReMap and assist data submissions, analyze the LANDFIRE Reference Database to understand where data are most needed, and continue to make contacts and clarify strategies and priorities.
Ongoing/planned projects: Hiawatha National Forest Fuels Assessment (USFS, TNC, Michigan Tech, WI DNR), Driftless Young Forest Landscape Planning (WI DNR), fire effects and fire history in Wisconsin (WI DNR), understand LANDFIRE mapping processes "under the hood."
Upcoming travel/presentations: Mid-Atlantic Interstate Forest Fire Protection Compact May 10-11 in McHenry, MD; NE RSC face to face and NAASF June 19-22 in Hanover, MD.
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April 2017
The original LANDFIRE (LF) national product suite consisted of base layers mapped circa 2001. The data have since been updated (i.e. LF 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014); however, the base map remained the same. The LF 2015 Remap provides the opportunity to generate a new set of base map products. It is not limited to using the production techniques of the original LF national and subsequent update production processes, but will use newly available datasets and data processing techniques to produce new vegetation, fuels, and fire regime base layers that are representative of circa 2015 ground conditions.
The LF 2015 Remap prototyping efforts are split into several topical areas: reference data, composite Landsat data, ancillary data, vegetation structure modeling, lifeform modeling, and existing vegetation type modeling, including an overview of data applications, e.g. fire risk and vegetation recovery. Read the full article in March 2017 issue of Earthzine, coauthored by LF's Joshua J. Picotte, Jordan Long, Birgit Peterson, and Kurtis J. Nelson. Participate in the Remap effort.
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Fire and Fuels Monitoring Workshop
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June 6-8, 2017, Albany Pine Bush Preserve
Register Here!
Fire and fuels monitoring can help ensure that management objectives are being met. This 3-day, field- and classroom-based workshop will introduce participants to important tools for selecting metrics that match management objectives, developing site-specific protocols for sampling, and developing a monitoring handbook for your local ecosystem.
This workshop is based on a highly successful workshop created by the Lake States Fire Science Consortium and the Huron-Manistee National Forest. We will be joined by Brian Stearns, Wildland Fire Module Leader for the Huron-Manistee National Forests, and Jack McGowan-Stinski, Program Manager for the Lake States Fire Science Consortium, as well as experts from the North Atlantic region.
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Joint Meeting NAFSE/Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact
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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.
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Conferences, Meetings, and Training Opportunities
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--Regional--
Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors Annual Meeting
June 19-23, 2017
Hanover, MD
--National--
June 4-7, 2017
Boston, MA
June 26-29, 2017
Hosted by the Yakama Nation at the Yakima Convention Center
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
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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?
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