|
Fire Chronicle #24
|
Laura McCarthy, Forest Trust
|
Apr 07, 2004 09:47 PDT
|
FIRE CHRONICLE: Stories of the National Fire Plan
Number 24
April 7, 2004
POLICY EVALUATION: THE STATE OF THE NATIONAL FIRE PLAN
The Fire Chronicle email newsletter was created by the Forest Trust in
October 2000 to provide a vehicle for disseminating information about
implementation of the National Fire Plan. Now, more than two years
later, the Trust has combined Fire Chronicle stories with other
information in a report on the “State of the National Fire Plan.” The
report examines the effects of the program on communities and forests
nationwide. This issue of the Fire Chronicle summarizes the report’s
conclusions and key findings. The four main conclusions about the
National Fire Plan are:
1. The National Fire Plan successfully focuses land managers’ attention
on the urgent problems created by a century of fire suppression and
widespread home building in forested areas vulnerable to fire.
2. Efforts to reduce forest fuels and fire risk are hindered by the
difficulty of establishing an equitable collaborative priority setting
process and by the diversion of funds appropriated for fuels reduction
to fire suppression.
3. Rural forest-dependent communities benefit from the National Fire
Plan because of special authorities to encourage local employment.
However, only modest employment gains have been documented and
significant barriers to economic opportunities have been identified.
4. Assessment of progress toward the goals of the National Fire Plan is
difficult and piecemeal because of the size and complexity of the
programs and the lack of measurable, meaningful, performance indicators.
The Forest Trust used the goals of the National Fire Plan to create six
criteria to evaluate the program’s effectiveness in achieving its stated
goals. The six criteria were selected because they reflect the interests
of forest-dependent communities. They are: strategic allocation of
funding to accomplish national fire plan goals; effective alteration of
fuels to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic fire; restoration of
natural fire regimes in fire-adapted ecosystem types; collaboration
among all levels of government and with citizens; availability of local
employment and training opportunities; and protection of people and
their property from fire.
Following are the most significant findings about the State of the
National Fire Plan:
1. The distribution of National Fire Plan funding reflects policymakers’
emphasis on fire suppression; more than 70% of each annual Fire Plan
appropriation has been directed toward activities that contribute to the
suppression of wildfires.
2. The National Fire Plan provides some economic benefits to rural
communities by awarding a small percentage of fuels reduction jobs to
local contractors and workers. Significant barriers to rural economic
development through the National Fire Plan remain. These barriers
include insufficient public investment in processing infrastructure and
a new government emphasis on efficiency through large contracts that
excludes small community-based businesses.
3. A primary goal of the National Fire Plan is to protect people and
their property from wildfire. Community protection goals were
accomplished with funds to state and rural fire assistance programs that
enabled local and volunteer fire departments to train firefighters and
update their equipment. Grants to a select number of communities in 2001
allowed them to prepare fire protection plans. However, after the first
year, National Fire Plan funds were not appropriated for community
plans.
4. Low-income communities are more vulnerable than high-income
communities to the economic effects of wildfire, yet Fire Plan programs
to assist homeowners do not target low-income communities.
5. The National Fire Plan provided little direction to field managers
about how to set priorities for fuel reduction treatments. Congress
initially instructed the agencies to identify high-risk communities, but
the process was poorly conceived and did not provide satisfactory
results. The 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy Implementation Plan led to a
new policy for a collaborative process to identify and set priorities
for fuel treatment at the state and regional level. This policy is
supported through an interagency memorandum of understanding committing
to joint federal, state, local and tribal government planning of annual
treatment plans beginning in 2004.
6. The National Fire Plan does not provide formal channels for
communities to engage in policy-oriented collaboration at the national
level. For example, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council includes the
National Association of Counties but does not have community-level
representation. At the field level, collaboration that includes
communities in place-based implementation of fuel reduction and
restoration treatments is becoming more commonplace and successful.
7. Reports describing wildfire behavior and burn patterns indicate that
strategically placed fuel breaks are effective at dropping crown fire to
the ground and in particular, that wildfires slow when they burn into
large areas where ground fuels have been reduced by prescribed fire. The
reports also indicate that the behavior of wind-driven wildfire is
rarely influenced by fuel treatments, and the severity of large
wildfires is patchy.
8. The area where natural fires are allowed to burn is still small
compared to the acres where fire is suppressed. Prescribed burning and
“wildland fire use” are the least expensive methods of reducing
hazardous fuels, yet these treatments are only used to restore large
areas (10,000 acres or more) in a few management units.
9. Consistent data to assess outcomes of the Plan across the West is
nearly impossible to obtain, underscoring the need for a better system
for documenting the effects of this important federal policy.
The policy landscape has changed considerably since the National Fire
Plan was launched in September 2000. The first important change was
integration of “A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire
Risks to Communities and the Environment: 10-Year Comprehensive
Strategy” as part of the National Fire Plan. This plan incorporates the
perspective of state and local interests into national policy. The
second important change was the Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI), which
includes a set of administrative rules and the Healthy Forest
Restoration Act of 2003. So far, HFI policies have focused on treatment
of hazardous fuels.
The Fire Chronicle will continue to track the evolution of the National
Fire Plan and related policies such as the Healthy Forests Restoration
Act. The purpose of the newsletter will remain the same: to share
information about on-the-ground effects of the policies and programs.
Please provide us with feedback about the newsletter – what you like and
don’t like – and share it widely with colleagues who seek information
about fire and forest policies.
FOR THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND FULL REPORT of the State of the National
Fire Plan, visit this web site:
http://www.theforesttrust.org/whatsnew.html
FIRE CHRONICLE is edited by Laura McCarthy at the Forest Trust. The
Forest Trust welcomes your comments, stories, and observations about how
the National Fire Plan is being implemented (just send a reply message
and it will go to the list moderator). To subscribe to FIRE CHRONICLE go
to http://www.topica.com/lists/firechronicles/ or send an email message
to lau-@theforesttrust.org.
PAST ISSUES OF FIRE CHRONICLE can be downloaded from
http://www.theforesttrust.org/forest_protection.html#fire
1. 2002 Fire Plan Appropriations will Benefit from 2001 Experience
2. Wildland-Urban Interface Definition a Barrier to Accountability
3. Stewardship Blocks: Innovative Tool Brings Fire Plan Benefits into
Community
4. Youth Training Needed for Fire Plan to Benefit Local Workforce
5. Grants Get National Fire Plan Money into Communities
6. Collaborative Forest Restoration Program Creates New Solution to
Gridlock
7. Permits Regulate Prescribed Burning on Private Land
8. Accountability Remains a Key Issue for National Fire Plan
9. National Partnership Advances Landscape-Scale Forest Restoration
10. Poor Communities Most Threatened By Wildfire
11. A New Model to Fire-Proof Forest Homes
12. Consensus Over Fuel Reduction Treatment Dissolves
13. Wildland Urban Interface Definition Needed for Effective Policy
14. Funding Gaps Prevent Completion of Hazardous Fuel Reduction
15. Agencies Propose to Streamline Environmental Review for Hazardous
Fuel Reduction Treatments
16. National Fire Plan Provides Economic Opportunity for Rural Residents
17. Bark Beetles Heighten Wildfire Concerns
18. Small And Local Businesses Cite Barriers To Reaching National Fire
Plan Goals
19. Federal Report Fuels Public Debate Over Healthy Forests Act
20. New Report Evaluates Efficacy Of Fuel Reduction Treatments
21. Slow Progress to Set Treatment Priorities for National Fire Plan
22. Better Accounting of Fuels Reduction is Needed
23. Scientists Tell Agencies: “Salvage Of Dead Pinyon Pine May Be
Counterproductive”
|
|
 |
|
