FY2006 Accomplishment Report

FY 2006 was a transition year for this team project. This was the first year that the teams were mobilized through ROSS. The USFS Prevention Coordinators served as regional liaisons to the Prevention Education Team Leaders and Members in order to provide information to them. Because of the early 2006 fires and Hurricane Katrina, numerous teams were ordered at the beginning of the year and provided early testing of the system.

The team utilized NWCG funding to complete projects begun by the contractor. Delays due to fire and hurricane seasons delayed the completion of some projects. In FY 2006, P310- Prevention Education Team Member and P410-Prevention Education Team Leader were completed. These courses will be available through PMS in early CY2007. Funding was also utilized to develop a team leader handbook which will be placed on the web for teams to download.

This is continuation of a project begun in FY2005. The Communicators Guide – Wildland Fire is being revised. This fieldguide is widely used and provides background material for interagency to use in their communication, education, and prevention activities with the public about wildland fire management. The task group team worked extensively on this project in FY2006. The final product is expected to be available in the Symbols Cache in early 2007. The revised version will be entitled: …

During the year, the team sent two announcements to the field through the e-mail network regarding issues that the team worked on. The first announcement was for the availability of Best Practices – Communication Planning. This document provides a framework for personnel to use in developing useful communications plans. A second announcement was sent announcing the re-release of the national interagency fire messages. Both of these items are part of the continuing team project: National Fire Messaging Project.

Training development
Following up the team’s FY2004 effort to identify national prevention training needs, the team initiated plans to revise one training course P101, P301 and has been actively involved in the current revision of S-203. S-203 is being revised with the Training Development Group and the Training WT funding and will be completed in FY2007.

This project used funds obligated in FY2005 to complete the project. The revised P101 is expected to be available through PMS in January 2007.

The request for proposal for the revision of P301 was completed however the bids received were insufficient to meet the needs of the project. NWCG funding of $30,000 with an additional $90,000 from the USFS was identified to pay for this contract. Because the contract was not awarded, this project was not started in FY2006. The team and task group intend to re-bid this project in FY2007.

The WFEWT is sponsoring a session at the 3rd International Fire Ecology and Management Congress in San Diego, CA November 14-17, 2006. The team is paying the travel for the invited speakers to the Congress out of the FY 07 budget. In preparation for this project, the team paid for the speaker registrations out of FY2006 funding.

The team met three times in FY2006- October 2005, Gettysburg, PA; January 2006 Albuquerque, NM; and May 2006, Boise, ID – and held six phone conferences. The team spent $10,197 on State Travel. The total also included travel for one state member to attend the test courses for P310 and P410 and the revision of P110.

Team members also represented the WFEWT in the following areas: the interagency fire prevention coordinators group (NIFC CORE group); the Pacific Northwest Coordinating Group Prevention Workshop; The WUI and Fire Prevention Exchange (Southern US); and served as liaisons to the other working teams.

The Wildland Fire Education Working Team worked on many tasks this year to improve team operations. These tasks included updating the team’s strategic plan, handbook and team history to ensure all information was pertinent and up-to-date. A revised team charter was approved by the parent group. The working team developed a set of standard operating principles to provide consistency to team activities. The task group organization begun in FY 2003 continues to function well for the team. Two task groups are currently operating: Training Development and Communicators Guide Revision groups.

The team also participated in a review of the revised course P110 Assessing Fire Prone Property with the Wildland Urban Interface WT.

In the past year, the team welcomed two new members: Catherine Hibbard, USFWS and Rudy Williams as a state representative from the Northeast.

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