Northern Rockies Coordinating Group

FIRE USE COMMITTEE CHARTER

Mission

The Federal Wildland Fire Management policy is predicated on principles that:

• Reduce threats to firefighter and public safety.
• Reduce the loss of public and private values.
• Reduce ecological deterioration as a result of fire exclusion or catastrophic wildfire.

Within the Northern Rockies Geographic Area (NRCG), prescribed fire is a fundamentally important management practice used to sustain fire-dependent ecosystems in a healthy, productive, and resilient condition.

The Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy recognizes the beneficial aspects of a fire use program and introduces the means to more widely use prescribed fire in a coordinated and consistent manner across agency boundaries.

The NRCG fire use committee is established to:

• Better integrate fire-related considerations into resource management objectives, plans, and practices across agencies,
• Facilitate interagency coordination of prescribed fire applications across ownerships,
• Develop public awareness strategies to support an expanded fire use program, complementary to on-going fire prevention efforts, and
• Recommend prioritization criteria, used for allocating resources within the GeographicArea across the full range of fire management activities.

Membership

This committee will be composed of Zone Representatives (committee members), Technical Specialists, and an NRCG Director who will serve as a liaison to the NRCG Board of Directors.

Zone representatives will be selected by the zones and will serve for a minimum of 1 year. Technical Specialists will be appointed, as needed, by the Fire Use Committee; and will serve on an ad hoc basis for a maximum of 2 years.

The Committee may set up Task Forces to assist as needed. Any Task Force so established will work under the direction of the committee, and upon completion of its task, will sunset unless additional duties are assigned.

Purpose

The committee will assist the NRCG Board of Directors in promoting and coordinating the efforts of all member agencies embarked upon a major effort to restore fire to its role in the function of healthy forest and range ecosystems, to use fire as a management tool for resource programs, to reduce hazardous fuel accumulations, and to assure a safe and appropriate fire use and integration strategy.

Officers' Roles and Responsibilities

The Fire Use Committee will select a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson from the appointed Zone Representatives (committee members) for a 2-year term.

The Chairperson will be responsible for identifying issues, setting the agenda, scheduling and conducting committee meetings, and reporting accomplishments to the NRCG at their semiannual meetings and/or via NRCG conference calls and coordinate with other NRCG standing

committees.

The Vice Chairperson will assume the duties of the Chairperson during any absence of the Chair. The Vice Chairperson will be responsible for taking the meeting minutes and distributing them to all committee members and the NRCG Executive Secretary. The Vice Chairperson may arrange

for a scribe to handle committee minutes.

Meetings

Meetings will be scheduled as necessary by the Chairperson or as directed by the Board of Directors.

Administrative Procedures

The Fire Use Committee may develop proposed direction and procedures for consideration by the Board of Directors.

Each agency will be responsible for their agency's review of new policies and/or procedures through its representative on either the committee or the Board of Directors. Final reports will be presented to the NRCG Board of Directors for interagency adoption, distribution and inclusion into agency manuals.

/s/ Dan O’Brien

Chairman, Northern Rockies Coordinating Group June 25 1998