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National Wildfire Coordinating Group
Fire Environment Working Team
Fire Behavior Committee
2007 Spring Meeting
April 10-12, 2007
Marquette, MIC

Members present:

John Barborinas
Kelly Close
Dan Jimenez
John Saltenberger
Larry VanBussum
Robert Ziel

Tuesday, April 10

Agenda, Minutes Approval

Strategic Plan, Charter, FENWT Organization

• Revision of charter to reflect strategic plan goals and revision of membership criteria. Increase membership to “up to 9 members” and reference need for training representation and fireline operations representation.
  • Action Item – request approval of revised charter.

FLAME

• Guest by conference call – Jim Bishop
  • Action Item – Seek funding for continued train the trainer workshops to be conducted by Jim Bishop @ $2000 per workshop ($700 + Travel), beginning in fall.
  • Action Item – Contribute Jim’s Q&A to several MFC communities along. with “Flame in a Nutshell” and 3rd section of Technical Report.
  • Action Item – determine need for funding of FLAME field guides.
  • Action Item – pursue completion of technical and publication of GTR.

2nd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference

• Extreme Fire Behavior Panel Discussion.

Fire Research

• JFSP Synthesis.
• Safety Zone.
• Firestem.
• BehavePlus Training.
• Tool List.
• Transition to Crown Fire.
• FSPro.
• Wind Wizard – Concern about availability of software for field personnel with cost of $1000 per license.
  • Action Item – contact Bret Butler and Regional GACC’s to discuss how software can be available.

Refresher Video Issues

• Weather Observations.
  • Action Item – John Saltenberger to work with Ted Mason and Scott Anderson.
• Safety concerns – “Call to Action” raised as means to improve attention to warning (Larry).

FBAN/LTAN Taskbook Revision

• Joining by conference call – Dave Whitmer, Lisa Elenz, Tom Wordell.

Training Curriculum Revision

• Joining by conference Call – Risa Lange-Navarro, Noble Dunn.
• CD of errata for S390 Instructor Guide will require individuals to print and replace.
• FLAME Lesson not ready for distribution or available on the web until after 490 edited and S290 edited.
• S490 Beta’s conducted in Rapid City, Tucson, Minnesota. One planned for Texas in Lufkin, May 14th. No one from FBC available to participate.
  • Action Item – Zeke to contact Clint about their upcoming course.
• S490 content may be managed on web page for periodic updates. SME group? Process for control?
• Subject Matter Expert for training in indicators of extreme fire behavior and how the human element is addressed.
  • Action Item - Kelly Close the best choice to contact Safety Working team to discuss an approach.

Wednesday, April 11

Curriculum Matrix and Maintenance Process

• Action Item - FBC to draft proposal for a group of SME’s (Steering Committee?) for each major subject area for the S-X90 series (a steering committee).
• Current state of Curriculum Matrix distributed for review, updates still pending from S492 and S493 courses held in March.

Viegas Canyon Fire Spread Model

• No call – no action.
• Discussed Fites paper and justifications.
• Dan Jimenez distributed comments from researchers at Fire Lab.
• Discussion of need for emphasizing fire behavior in canyons. Perhaps on Video.

FENWT Issues

• Paul Schlobohm and Risa Lange-Navarro joined by conference call.
• COMET – What commitment do fire agencies need to put forth? Big question will be interaction between Canadian effort and COMET’s.
• A standing steering committee would need to be recognized by TWT so let Paul know when the “team” is proposed.
• S-491 offered in Great Basin, effort to offer as electronic content. Actually hybrid with notebooks still distributed.
• Budget – discussed disconnect between proposed budget and final budget. Need to get budget lines and authorized spending cleared up.
  • Action Item – Paul and Zeke to call Cheryl Molis to agree on budget lines and spending.
• Survey.
• Meetings – FBC rep to all FENWT meetings, but it likely won’t be the same person each time.

FBC Administration

• Call in by Punky to discuss her potential role and future schedule.
• Team has caved into Risa’s demands and she said she is likely to be back.
• Team has also caved into Punky’s demands and she is likely to be back.
• Larry caved into the team’s demands and is remaining with the team.

FBAN/LTAN Taskbook Revision

• Joining by Conference call – Dave Whitmer, Lisa Elenz, Tom Wordell.

FBAN/LTAN/IMET Questionnaire Issues

• Potential to use wind gusts for spotting forecasts.
  • Action Item – John S. to draft committee position on the 4 questions for FENWT.
  • Action Item – John S and Kelly to work with others to define wind gusts both for forecasts, automated observations, and manual observations.

Thursday, April 12

FBAN/LTAN/IMET Questionnaire Issues

• Weather questionnaire.
• Discussion of RAWS collection/maintenance issue and data reliability.
  • Action Item – determine how questionable RAWS data is used.

Meetings and Conference Call Schedule

• Set dates and locations for fall ’07 and spring ’08 FBC meeting.
• Set conf. call dates and times from 5/07 – 2/08 .
  • Action Item – Zeke posted new dates and locations on myfirecommunity.

WFDSS, LTAN’s & Advanced Training Strategy

• FSPro course in Missoula May 14-18.
  • Action Item – Dan J. will attend Missoula course to represent FBC.
  • Action Item – See that draft taskbooks are passed to Wayne Cook .

COMET, S591 and S290 Proposal

Discussion included Wendel Welch from training development group, FBC, and Comet reps (Liz, Dwight, Greg). Larry explained the NWS initiative to build an online version of S290 for their meteorologists with the assistance of COMET. COMET representatives explained their organization and processes.

COMET is currently building an online program for their S591 (Fire Weather) course, which has elements of fire behavior in it. Discussion about how much overlap there is between S591 and S290, which would reduce the time and funding requirements for S290. Wendel agreed to share current draft of new S290 with COMET reps for scoping and to insure consistency with NWCG course. Proposal for COMET S290 development is for 6 months of 12-18 months required to complete S290.

• Action Item – Paul S. inquire with Logan Lee about possibility of having Comet present at May meeting. Discuss with Wendel about potential for future fire course development and the financial commitment.

COMET also demonstrated some of the new development for S591, showing a draft matrix of fire behavior modeling tools. This unit is intended to be a stand alone unit that can be updated as needed. One of 6 modules……fire wx program structure, forecasting tech. module, climatology module, critical wx patterns mod, fire science mod., stability mod/ atmospheric stability on fire behavior. 591 is based on 290,390,490 fire behavior/fire weather content.

They requested Fire Behavior expertise to help with review and some development of materials for the model matrix unit.

• Action Item – Larry V and COMET to contact Pat & Doug Stephen, local to Boulder, CO as good prospects for modeling tools matrix. Consider adding RERAP and FSPro to the matrix.

Discussed content/terminology in extreme fire behavior unit in 591. Storyboard is considering differentiating normal/common from extreme fire behavior. Need for FBC review. Liz (COMET) also pointed out the fire science module, intending to bring wx folks into fire behavior culture to recognize important wx parameters.

• Action Item - John Saltenberger to establish a neighborhood for S591 to use for review and discussion of the fire science and extreme fire behavior materials. Invite COMET folks to the neighborhood.
• Action Item – establish SME to begin work with COMET on S591, perhaps establish as ongoing group. Insure consistency with content in NWCG offerings.

Refresher Video

Conference call with Ted Mason, Scott Anderson, and Dave Whitmer to discuss process for production of BLM fireline refresher video and opportunity to recommend/contribute content.
Based on discussion on Tuesday, John Saltenberger used the document submitted last year as the basis for his proposal to include fireline weather observation techniques in the video. FBC agreed that John Saltenberger will work directly for its inclusion for 2008 video.

Discussed need for a continuing contribution of fire behavior topics to the Fireline refresher materials such as acceleration of fires through canyons/chutes, area ignition scenarios. Ted and Scott want the FBC to consider developing a 3-5 year plan for fire behavior topics in the refresher program. Time frame for segments is 5-10 minutes for video.

Ted plans to accompany Kelly C. on Cramer hike on June 2, 2007. Possibly use material as intro into wx refresher. WFSTAR folks are planning on a May 22 meeting to develop strategies and will review John S. material in meantime. They will get back to us afterwards with update.

• Action Item – devise a 3 – 5 years plan for video refresher.
• Action Item – swap emails with Scott Anderson and FBC members.
• Action Item – ask what FBC financial commitment is to generate refresher videos.

Extreme Fire Behavior

• Action Item – Zeke will send all FBC members extreme fire behavior material/spreadsheet.
• Action Item – each FBC member should spend some time reviewing the extreme fire behavior course content based on the curriculum matrix and be prepared to discuss at the Fall 2007 meeting in Sacramento.

Budget/Priorities

• $10k for tech support, $2.5k for cont. ed., $4k for fuel model regionalization, $5k for FBC conf & workshops, $5k for FBC meeting travel.
• Electronic fire behavior field guide.
• Comet – we won’t ask for money for that effort.
• Jim Bishop – train the trainer funding for this year and next…..$2000/session.
• Funding for FLAME materials….fy2008.
• Publication support
  • Action Item – Dan will pursue revisions from review of content to FFMath.
  • Action Item – Dan will ask about additional funding for Fire Fighter Math to integrate interactive phase, due date 4/24.
  • Action Item – Dan will contact Colin Bevins about conversion of fire behavior field guide and appendix B to electronic format, due date 4/24.
• Travel for Zeke and Kelly…..$7500 for 2007/2008.
• Meeting Support…$1000 for 2007/2008.

Meeting Schedule

• Fall - Nov 6, 7, 8 at Sacramento.
• Spring - April 8, 9, 10.
• Should discuss changing pattern to reflect coordination with FENWT and NWCG meetings.

Calls:

• May 24, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.
• June 14, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.
• July 12, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska if needed.
• Aug 16, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska if needed.
• Sept 13, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.
• Oct 18, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.
• Dec 13, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.
• Jan 17, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.
• Feb 14, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.
• Mar 13, 1300 Eastern, 1100 Mountain, 1000 Pacific, 0900 Alaska.

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