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NRCG Northwest
Montana Zone
Spring Meeting
April
30, 2002 |
NRCG Zone Members
Attending: Unable to Attend:
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Follow-up items
are listed in bold in these notes.
Committee Updates --NRCG Committee notes & spring meeting should soon be posted on the web at http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/fire/nrcg/
Business
·
NRCG
Supplements to the Interagency Business Mgmt Handbook should soon be on the
web; AD-5 rates reviewed and finalized (soon to be posted)
·
Working to
improve coordination with NRCG Ops and Training Committees via establishing
designated liaisons between the committees.
·
NRCG
Equipment committee has been approved. The NW Mt Zone will need to identify a
rep to that committee when they get organized. Working with issue of engine
GVWR/safety issues, also single resource engine boss dispatches with engines
(NRCG Policy letter 4/26/02)
·
Major
training effort in fire business “Back to Basics” sessions in each NRCG Zone
·
Equipment
inspection Train the Trainer session was held in Missoula. Local follow-up – compile &
distribute list of NW Montana personnel attending - NEIL – look for OJT
opportunities for these folk this year. May need to consider additional
training within the Zone next year
·
Buying teams
– 2 established within Northern Rockies. Also the option for “short” 3 person
teams
·
National crew
and engine contracts continue to be delayed – may not materialize at all this
year. Even if they do, expect no impact for NW Montana this year.
·
Recommendations
re training for AD Sawyers/fallers was approved, but no timeline yet for
implementation
Training
·
A busy
training season has been ongoing, with concentrated sessions coming up. Zone
training schedule at http://www.nationalfiretraining.net/nr/zones/nwm.pdf
o
Interagency
Training academy will be May 27-June 7
o
DNRC Engine
School – week of June 11
o
NPS Guard
School - week of June 17
·
One new FS
requirement is for all of our Apprentices to receive mandatory hazmat training.
Neil will be coordinating a session for this specific 24 hour requirement.
·
Will work to
get the training schedule for the Zone set earlier this year – Dec
·
NWCG Training
issues – continuing to work with issues surrounding contractor training and
certification, current MOUs for training providers are good till fall.
·
Upcoming effort
to do a better job of training NEEDS assessment versus wants
assessment. Northern Rockies is acting
as a prototype for information that will be built into the new IQCS Incident
Quals & Certification System, under development. We should try to put some
energy into this effort to help do a better job regionally of scheduling and
prioritizing training. NRTC put on more than their “max capability” for
sessions this year! NRCG has
provided info on historical team use by agency to help get this done. Zone response will be due on May 31.
Cathy will participate in a conference call 5/10 and follow-up with Neil to
facilitate our response. Zone Training committee reps should expect to be
contacted for input in the next few weeks.
·
Course
equivalency issue is still being looked at in the training committee
Prevention
Prevention Group
has been working on updating the Zone prevention and Education Plan, including
the Closures & Restrictions info. Additional input provided at the meeting.
Draft of prevention actions and trigger points has been included – there is
also an effort to do this at the NRCG level, so we may defer more work on that
section till we see the NRCG products. Fred volunteered GNP to do a draft of
the “Fire In the Ecosystem” section, to provide talking points. May defer
smoke mgmt section till next fall. Mark
& Marcy will follow up to complete as much as possible and finalize by the
3rd week of May.
Identified need
for new Media Contact (vice Pat Cross). Allen Rowley on the FNF has agreed
to play this role on an interim basis through the summer. We will need to
identify a longer-term solution at our fall meeting. Prevention committee is
doing some additional staff work re the logistics of paid ads versus news
releases. Mark will follow-up with Allen re final prevention plan and
recommendations from the committee re zone messages, timeline & method.
The Zone would like to see individual contacts to media folks to help
facilitate their cooperation in getting these messages out.
Restrictions
& Closures – Mark
attended a NRCG session last month. Feeling is things went smoother in
2001. Basically they are refining what
worked last year, without major changes expected. Still some questions/issues
to finalize boundary with adjoining zones & standard exemptions. Also discussion of other counties role in
Restrictions and Closures: Lake,
Glacier, Powell and Lewis & Clark Counties potentially affected. Mark to
follow up with John Dahlberg & see if theres a need to have some additional
discussion with these counties. Would like to coordinate some standard signing
for the Zone, with a place to write in exemptions. Please forward examples from
last year to Mark to get this included in the plan.
Railroad
Coordination Meeting –
There is currently an annual meeting between the USFS, DNRC, and
Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Rail Road representatives. The Zone agreed to make
this an NRCG Zone coordination meeting to facilitate additional communication.
All NRCG members will be have the opportunity to participate in next year’s
meeting.
NW Montana
Support Zone Operating Plan – This
plan had not been revised for several years, and there is a need to bring it
more up-to-date with current operating procedures for how we work together in
extended attack, in incident support and MAC situations. There may be a need
for a task group to closely look at the plan this year. The group decided it
was important interim step to at least do an update to the plan for this fire season, to include the role of the
Counties, outline the mobilization of
resources within the Zone, and add
current MAC group operating procedures. Charlie & Neil agreed to put
together a working draft to better serve us this summer, with the goal of
finalizing a plan for signature next winter. Please get issues and input for
changes to them so they can complete a draft by July 1.
NW Montana Mob
Plan for Dispatching resources out of Zone – Plan is currently being routed for signature. We discussed
need to clarify some wording regarding contact/dispatch procedures. Neil
will write the additional verbage and get to Wally Bennett to incorporate.
Cathy will forward final version via e-mail when signed.
Zone
Interagency Coordination - Discussed
the direction the FNF and KNF are going with new Cooperative Fire Specialist position, and the possibility of
having it be an Interagency position to further strengthen Zone coordination
efforts. A preliminary listing of possible task areas was briefly discussed.
There was a general feeling that this might benefit the Zone, in that we would
provide someone to focus efforts to further Zone priority projects, and could
provide staff support to the Zone in a number of areas. Agency needs,
priorities, and ability to support such a position would vary, but we felt the
idea is worth considering. There may be grants that this person could pursue to
help fund the position as well. Each Agency Rep should provide Charlie with
a list of priority tasks or issues for such a position to address by June 15.
Charlie will try to synthesize the information, and develop a more specific proposal that each Agency Rep could
forward to their Administrator for consideration by July 15.
Reviewed &
updated Zone Contact list - -Mark will distribute with final edits
Scheduled Date for Fall Zone Meeting – October 11, 2002
(this is prior to Fall NWCG Meeting)
Thanks to all for
another productive meeting. Lets keep the good communication going as we move
into the summer season.
Cathy Calloway, Chair & Scribe