Fire Management Report

Overview

NYS Forest Ranger logo New York State experiences two primary wildfire seasons and a periodic secondary season. The spring fire season is March 1 through May 31 and the summer fire season is June 1 through September 15. A fall wildfire season periodically occurs between September 15 and the end of December when climactic conditions are suitable for wildfire activity. Typically, fall fires occur during periods of drought and when there is little daily rain or snow. New York does not experience a winter fire season, but fires occasionally occur for the same reasons as fall fires. Winter fires are generally so infrequent and of such low significance that the division includes them as fall fires for reporting purposes. The 2007 fire occurrence was well below New York's 25 year running average of 328 fires burning 2,833 acres. This was primarily due to above average precipitation across the state during the summer and fall. Rangers contained and extinguished 211 wildfires which burned a total of 855 acres. Of these fires, 131 occurred during the spring fire season, 65 occurred during the summer and 15 occurred during the fall-winter period. The largest fire occurred in spring and burned 96 acres in Orange County. Debris burning was the most frequently reported causal agent for wildfire starts, causing 23% of all reported wildfires and amounting to 21% of the total acreage burned.

The fire reporting database was improved in 2007 to capture basic information on real property losses (or potential for loss) and human fatalities or injuries due to wildfire events. Of the 211 wildfire incidents reported, nearly 6 percent (12 events) had negative impacts on people and real property with one home lost, 15 homes threatened, 10 structures (buildings other than homes) lost and six structures threatened. In addition, six injuries were reported. Eleven of these 12 events occurred during the spring fire season.

Fire management in New York, however, is much more than simple wildfire suppression. In brief, it encompasses many management projects and collaboration with many other agencies and programs. Some of these efforts are listed below:

Developing and implementing statewide and regional fire plans.
Assessing and developing wildland fire training and equipment needs.
Developing and implementing fire prevention and education programs in high risk, wildland-urban interface areas.
Developing and maintaining wildland fire weather and predictive services programs.

Working with DEC's regional programs, other state agencies, neighboring state wildfire agencies in the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Compact (NFFPC) and federal wildland fire agencies to implement strategies and agreements for better interstate and intrastate cooperation in areas of training, information exchange, equipment sharing and qualified personnel sharing during wildland fire emergencies.

To improve and promote the above in 2007, the Fire Management Officer (FMO) attended:

9 regional meetings,
7 state agency meetings (statewide county fire coordinators, Department of Corrections, Department of State, Office of Prevention and Control (OFPC), the Office of Parks and Historic Preservation, New York State Police Aviation Unit, and the State Emergency Management Office,
10 meetings with regional and federal partners (NFFPC, National Weather Service (NWS), US Forest Service and Northeast Forest Fire Supervisors), and
7 meetings with other organizations concerned with wildland and prescribed fire in New York (New York Wildfire and Incident Management Academy and Long Island Pine Barrens Commission Wildfire Task Force).

The division made excellent progress developing several aspects of the fire management program in 2007. The following paragraphs give a brief synopsis of the most noteworthy wildland fire management accomplishments for the year.

State and Regional Wildland Fire Management Plans

The division revised its draft of the New York State Wildland Fire Management Plan ("statewide plan") and revised subsets Regional Wildland Fire Management Plans ("regional plans"). The statewide plan provides overall guidance to the fire management program while regional plans provide specific guidance for the fire program within each region and within each fire danger rating area (FDRA). All plans have an annual review and revision process at the end of each fire season to incorporate necessary changes in policy or procedure. Close monitoring of weather and fire events in the ten FDRAs' over the past several years will result in reducing FDRAs to eight in 2008.

Federal Wildland Fire Grant Administration

The division administered three federal grants from the USDA Forest Service in 2007, representing more than $1.3 million. New York's State Fire Assistance (SFA) grant, which consists of two sub-grants, was a total of $692,813. The SFA grant supports two forest ranger positions, fire fighting equipment purchases, training opportunities and interstate-interagency cooperation. The division also administered a $300,000 National Fire Plan - Hazard Mitigation Grant in which $50,000 was directed at the division's FireWise and wildfire prevention/education programs in the Adirondack Park. The remaining $250,000 were passthrough grants to the Eastern New York and Long Island chapters of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for conducting hazard mitigation projects in New York. In addition, the division administered a Volunteer Firefighter Assistance (VFA) grant which provided $1,000 to approximately 365 rural New York volunteer fire departments. VFA grants are used by rural volunteer departments to support purchasing of wildland fire fighting equipment. All funds allocated to the state from these grants require a 50% cost share match in which the division and its partners (TNC and volunteer fire departments) match the amount received with dollars and/or in-kind service.

Prescribed Fire Program in New York State

The division's Fire Management Officer reviewed six new prescribed burn plans which encompassed 14 separate prescribed burn units in 2007. These plans were submitted by the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, TNC's Long Island Chapter and other department divisions. Above average precipitation across the state made conditions generally unfavorable to achieve prescribed burn objectives and approximately one-half of the targeted acreage was actually burned. However, even with poor weather conditions, New York achieved the highest acreage treated on non federal lands in the northeast in 2007. Rangers participated on 13 prescribed burns totaling 301 acres in 2007. Rangers conducted four prescribed burns on department lands totaling 185 acres and assisted TNC and other partners on the Mohonk Preserve, Ulster County, and Albany Pine Bush Preserve, Albany County, with completing nine prescribed burns treating 116 acres. The division continued its work with TNC, Albany Pine Bush Commission, Mohonk Preserve and other department divisions using prescribed fire events as training and qualifications opportunities for wildland firefighters. This is achieved by matching inexperienced individuals with experienced fire fighters and prescribed burn specialists. Rangers and volunteers participated on all prescribed fires conducted by TNC and Albany Pine Bush Commission.

The division has work for several years to develop a standardized format for prescribed fire plans that are required for conducting prescribed fire on department lands. A standardized plan format was adopted by the division in December 2004 and was tested in 2005. The draft booklet, "Guidelines for Preparing a Prescribed Fire Plan on Department Lands" was made available to all prescribed fire managers in 2007. The booklet, along with a sample prescribed fire plan, is useful to guide department personnel and cooperators through the process of developing prescribed fire plans which meet the criteria established in New York laws and regulations.

The Fire Management Officer also participated on several regional and national conference calls with prescribed fire councils, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and with the departments Division of Air to better understand and help guide national policy on the EPA's "Interim Smoke Management Guidelines for Prescribed Fire" which is due to be finalized in 2008.

Predictive Services and Fire Weather Forecasting

The predictive services component of the fire management program continued its primary mission of providing informational support to the division to assist with planning and decision-making within the framework of the State Wildland Fire Management Plan. Support includes seasonal, monthly, and weekly fire weather and fire danger outlooks, daily fire weather and fire danger reports, weekly fire danger severity summaries, and on-site fire behavior predictions for both wildland fire and prescribed fire operations.

In his September, Commissioner Grannis outlined a number of organizational goals. The following four department goals are an integral part of the fire management and predictive services program:

Science: Apply state-of-the-art science and engineering knowledge in policymaking

Partnerships: Foster partnerships across agencies and sectors, both public and private

The public: Engage the public in decision-making and be proactive in meeting the public's needs

Technology: Utilize innovative technology to streamline operations

These goals are addressed throughout the fire management program and are a focal point for the predictive services aspect of the program. The following responsibilities and tasks were completed in 2007 in furtherance of achieving those goals.

The division continues to operate, maintain, and improve a network of 16 interagency, state of the art, remote automatic fire weather stations (RAWS). The weather station network provides the division and interagency partners with hourly fire weather data. The division's 25-year historic fire weather project to support the RAWS network was successfully implemented statewide in 2007. The fire weather project coupled with state-of-the-art weather monitoring provides the ability to identify critical fire weather breakpoints and fire business thresholds within unique fire danger rating areas.

Predictive services also provided a dynamic fire danger and fire weather training program for the division and our cooperators in 2007, including:

six training sessions for regional captains and lieutenants on the interpretation and application of the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) within the framework of the regional fire plans;
provided fire danger training to the Office of Public Protection (OPP) Dispatch Center in Ray Brook, including fire danger structure and terminology, a description of the RAWS network and associated products, and application of the NFDRS by the division within the framework of the state and regional fire management plans;
provided fire danger and fire weather training for the division's interagency cooperators, including the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Compact (NFFPC) members, local volunteer fire departments, and federal and state fire personnel.

The predictive services coordinator actively maintains contact with the five National Weather Service (NWS) offices serving the state. This communication has improved NWS fire weather services for the division and state cooperators by providing NWS a better understanding of the division's and cooperator's roles in fire organization and fire management responsibilities. In addition to a daily fire weather planning forecast issued daily for each forecast zone in the state, the NWS now prepares a daily next-day weather forecast for each of the 16 RAWS in the division's interagency network. This allows for next-day forecasting of fire danger indices which in turn allows for improved fire management planning at the local, regional, and division levels.

The division actively maintains open lines of communication to share fire weather and fire danger information with interagency partners. Communication with our interagency partners is primarily achieved through the efforts of the predictive services coordinator and includes communication to: the National Park Service at the Saratoga Battlefield and Fire Island National Seashore on Long Island; the US Fish & Wildlife Service at the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in Genesee County; the Wertheim Wildlife Refuge on Long Island; the US Army at West Point and Fort Drum; the USDA Forest Service at Finger Lakes National Forest; New York Sate Office of Parks and Historic Preservation overseeing the Lake Champlain, Palisades, and Allegany districts; The Eastern Chapter and Long Island Chapter of The Nature Conservancy; the Albany Pine Bush and Long Island Pine Barrens Commissions; the Mohonk and Wilton Preserves, and neighboring state wildland fire agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The fire management officer and predictive services coordinator also maintain lines of communication and provide presentations to local volunteer fire departments, the Department of State, Office of Fire Prevention and Control, County Emergency Management Coordinators, and the State Fire Chiefs Association. These contacts improve cooperation and availability of resources when needed under emergency conditions.

Predictive services continued to coordinate real-time access to the National Lightning Detection Network for division managers and supervisors in 2007. Access to this network is made possible through an extension of an agreement negotiated through the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. The service provides division personnel the ability to remotely track severe thunderstorms and assists in early detection and suppression of lightning caused wildfires.

The fire management program and particularly the predictive services coordinator provided fire behavior training programs for the division and cooperating personnel by:

providing fire behavior courses at the OPP Basic Recruit Academy in Fulton, NY,
providing fire behavior course instruction at the New York Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy on Long Island,
by providing instruction at the State University of New York (SUNY) Ranger School at Wanakena, NY.

The predictive services coordinator maintains several professional memberships related to fire weather/fire danger and serves on the following:

the eastern and southern states representative to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group Fire Environment Working Team,
the State representative to the National Steering Committee for Fire Danger,
the New York representative to the Northeastern Forest Fire Compact (NFFPC), Fire Science Working Team.

Participation on these teams and committees advances the knowledge and understanding of fire weather and fire danger science, as well as enhancing an expertise in the application of the NFDRS as an integral part of the Division's fire management programs. It also provides opportunity for New York's ideas and influence to be incorporated into the decision making process of these organizations.

In addition to the above, the fire management, predictive services program initiated the following new projects in 2007:

Coordinated a NFFPC research project to utilize fire science and technology to identify correct fire weather criteria for use by the NWS in its red flag warning program. Identification and use of correct parameters will increase the credibility of the red flag warning program, increase fire fighter safety and awareness, and decrease the number of false warnings and watches issued within the State.
Initiated a wildland urban interface (WUI) and fuels mapping project in conjunction with the department's GIS unit. This mapping initiative will develop and integrate new wildland fuels data with New York's population density data from the 2000 census to identify areas of high, moderate or low risk to wildland fire losses in the wildland urban interface and intermix areas within the State. Once completed, the project will allow state, regional and local fire managers to focus efforts on mitigating or reducing the potential for wildfire losses in those areas considered to have the highest levels of risk.

Preparedness and Assistance with National Emergencies

The division fielded two, 20-person Type 2 Initial Attack wildland firefighting crews to assist with suppressing wildfires in 2007. Crew #1 was dispatched to Oregon to fight the Battle Creek Fire, located on the Willowa-Whitman National Forest. The crew was assigned to the eastern flank of the fire with the primary duty of keeping the fire from entering the Hell's Canyon National Recreation Area. Crew #2 was dispatched to fight the Jocko Lakes Fire, Jocko Lakes, Montana. This fire was particularly troublesome as it frequently moved around and through populated areas. The crew assisted with fire-proofing residences and evacuations several times during the course of the two week assignment. Each of these crews were comprised of forest rangers, assistant forest rangers, other department employees and department volunteer firefighters.

In addition to the above out-of-state assignments, several forest rangers, retired forest rangers, department employees and volunteers with specific single-resource incident management skills were also mobilized for wildfire emergency incidents. These include:

Region 1 Natural Resources Supervisor, Charles Hamilton, Forest Ranger Tom Koss and Forest Ranger Steve Ovitt were dispatched as part of a NFFPC Incident Management Team assigned to assist the State of Georgia with managing numerous wildfires during a period of drought. Charles Hamilton served as the team Logistics Section Chief, Tom Koss served as a Logistics Section Chief Trainee and Steve Ovitt served as a Planning-Operations Section Chief.
Retired Forest Ranger, James Carpenter was dispatched as Strike Team Leader for engines to the Cascade Complex in Idaho. This was one of the largest multiple fire incidents this country has ever experienced.
Department volunteer Robert Miles served as a Support Dispatcher on assignments to the Northeast Dispatch Center in Bolton Maine, the Kelly Creek Complex in Nevada and on the Cow Creek Complex in Idaho.
Department volunteer, Gary Glintenkamp served on both fire crews and also worked an assignment as a Dozer Boss Trainee on the Jocko Lakes Fire in Montana.
DEC Region 1 Natural Resource Supervisor Charles Hamilton was dispatched as a Type 2 Logistics Section Chief to the Yolla Bolla Fire Complex on the Mendicino National Forest, Willows, California.
Civilian volunteer, Chelsea Nied worked five assignments from May through July as a Public Information Officer on major incidents. Assignments were in the states of Georgia, California, Utah, Montana and Idaho.

These mobilizations not only assisted the division's state, federal and NFFPC cooperators in time of need, but also provided excellent training opportunities for instate firefighting and incident management support.

Wildfire Prevention/Education

The division embarked on a wildfire hazard mitigation project for the Adirondack Park in 2006. The project was funded by a $50,000 National Fire Plan grant from the USDA Forest Service. The project goal is to reduce potential life and property losses in communities-at-risk within the Adirondack Park by raising the awareness of homeowners and local officials to wildfire hazards. The nationally recognized FireWise program describes typical hazards to be encountered and methods of mitigating those hazards with practical, low cost solutions. Five video and audio public service announcements were produced to spread the message of wildfire prevention and FireWise concepts. The division also produced a 30-minute digital video FireWise presentation for local government officials and homeowners plus a New York FireWise brochure and hang-tag as handouts at various meetings and gatherings. The multi-media FireWise project was fully implemented in 2007. The fire management officer delivered FireWise presentations to Adirondack Park Agency officials and to a large annual meeting of Adirondack local government officials. A follow-up survey is currently being conducted to measure the effectiveness of the presentations. Several thousand FireWise brochures have been handed out at county and state fairs and are available on request to any individual or group requesting them. More than two thousand minutes of public service announcements have aired in the Adirondack Region in 2007. The public service announcements message varied from dangers of debris burning, campfire safety, fireworks safety fire safety during period of high fire danger and FireWise principles for homeowners. All public service announcement messages were oriented toward reducing the number of wildfires or reducing losses should a wildfire occur.