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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 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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October 2018
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Save the Date!!! Mark your Calendars!!!
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Megan's Corner - October 2018
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- LANDFIRE 101: Hands down this is the best, shortest, most comprehensive, and most visually descriptive introduction to LANDFIRE. If you or someone you know is still having trouble understanding what LANDFIRE is, how the data is created, and how it is used, take a look at this less than 4-minute video by Heather Heward at the University of Idaho.
- September 10th LANDFIRE Seminar: On September 10, 2018, a panel consisting of Henry Bastian, Alexa McKerrow, Clint Cross, and Jim Smith presented Foundational All-Lands Data for Improving Decisions in Land Management to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Policy Analysis in Washington, DC. Among the topics they discussed are the interagency and interdepartmental approach to LANDFIRE's product suite, and a look at applications (both spatial and nonspatial data) and innovations that are changing conservation. A substantive question/answer session followed the presentation. More than 300 people viewed the webinar in person or via streaming video. Click here to watch the panel presentation.
- FBFM Survey and Fuels Calibrations: The deadline for filling out the Fire Behavior Fuel Model survey was September 30. I pulled the results on October 1, and we had 29 respondents from the Northeastern Area; thank you to those who filled it out! I will be digging into the results soon, but here's the most striking and actionable:
WOW. No statistical analysis required to say that is a SIGNIFICANT result. I'll be sharing the results with basically everyone I know who can help strategize our region's preparation for upcoming fuels calibrations for the risk assessment funded by the U.S. Forest Service. If you'd like a copy, please e-mail me. Much more to come soon!
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Delaware Forest Service Looks to Increase Wildfire Crews for Upcoming Fire Season
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Posted Monday, October 1, 2018
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Courtesy photo by Delaware.gov
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DOVER, Del. - The Delaware Forest Service is looking to increase its wildfire crews for the upcoming season through training for new recruits. During the 2018 wildfire season, Delaware sent two full crews out to Colorado, Idaho, and Montana to be first responders.
Interested recruits should be over 18 years old, physically fit, motivated, and willing to travel out-of-state for at least two weeks during the summer on fire assignments. No previous experience is needed, but recruits are required to complete ICS-100 (Introduction to the Incident Command System) and IS-700 (An Introduction to the National Incident Management System), available online, prior to reporting for training.
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Human-Started Wildfires Expand the Fire Niche Across the United States
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[Editor's Note: This research shows the important regional differences in human-caused wildfires and why there is not a "one-size-fits-all" strategy for managing wildfires nationally.]
Jennifer K. Balch, Bethany A. Bradley, John T. Abatzoglou,
R. Chelsea Nagy, Emily J. Fusco,
and Adam L. Mahood
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Vol. 114, No. 11)
March 14, 2017
Significance
Fighting wildfires in the United States costs billions of dollars annually. Public dialog and ongoing research have focused on increasing wildfire risk because of climate warming, overlooking the direct role that people play in igniting wildfires and increasing fire activity. Our analysis of two decades of government agency wildfire records highlights the fundamental role of human ignitions. Human-started wildfires accounted for 84% of all wildfires, tripled the length of the fire season, dominated an area seven times greater than that affected by lightning fires, and were responsible for nearly half of all area burned. National and regional policy efforts to mitigate wildfire-related hazards would benefit from focusing on reducing the human expansion of the fire niche.
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Figure 1. The total number of wildfires (dot size) and the proportion started by humans (dot color: red indicating greater number of human started fires) within each 50-km × 50-km grid cell across the coterminous United States from 1992 to 2012. Black lines are ecoregion boundaries, as defined in the text.
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Don't Reinvent the Prescribed Fire Wheel: Must-Have Liability, Timing and Outreach Resources
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September 20, 2018
Courtesy photo by Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network
Know Your Liability
If something goes wrong with a controlled burn, who's accountable? That's an important question, and the answer is different depending on your state and its current legislation.
What's Your State's Prescribed Fire Liability Law? provides a great overview of prescribed fire liability, but since liability is tied to current policy, be sure to research changes in your state. (Our liability blog was published in 2017.) For example, New Jersey recently passed
new prescribed fire legislation, which among its many nuances, redistributes prescribed fire liability.
Read the full blog post by Allison Jolley.
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Conferences, Meetings, and Training Opportunities
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--Regional--
October 29 - November 9, 2018
Pickens County, SC
October 29 - November 2, 2018
South Portland, ME
Fort Custer National Training Center
Battle Creek, MI
--National--
November 26-30, 2018
Charlottesville, VA
December 10-14, 2018
Asheville, NC
SAVE THE DATE: 3rd Annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop
October 21-24, 2019
Plymouth, MA
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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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