8.31.21 Steering Committee Meeting Notes

MEETING NOTES

9-11 AM Eastern, Aug 31st, 2021

Assigned Note taker: Michele Richards

9:00 – 9:10 Welcome and brief introductions (Name, Title, Affiliation)

Kevin Reese USFS, Michele Richards - MIARNG, Stephanie Diep - KNC, Dave Borneman - City of Ann Arbor, Michael Hahn – City of Ann Arbor, Andy Vander Yacht – MSU, Jack McGowan-Stinski - LSFC, Dakota Szczepanski - KNC, Tamiko Reagan – Mattawan Fire Dept. , Amy Frye, Jarod Reibel – Ed Lowe Foundation, Megan Martin – Stewardship Crew Leader SWMLC and Kalamazoo Township Fire Department, Laura Judge – farm bill biologist with Lenawee CD, Vic Bogosian – Potatwatomi Tribe, Steve Woods – Huron Pines, Craig Maier, TPOS, Sara Shlaffer - KBS MSU, Mark Sargent – MDNR, Mark Marshall

9:10 – 9:15 Future steering committee meetings

1. 4/year, 9-11 AM, last Tuesday of May, Aug, Nov, & Feb

2. November 30th and February 22nd 

3. Nov meeting conflict with The International Fire Congress (going virtual, if travel to Florida was a barrier)

4. Consider having longer or more frequent steering committee meetings

9:15 – 10:00am Rx fire review

1. USFS and Brittle Fire Summary

Brittle fire update. 1200 acre rx fire that became a 6500 acre incident. Not what they planned or hoped for. 4800 acres of crown fire in jack pine. Went through full learning analysis. Long term drought that their models don’t account for. Relationships with partners is critical, it’s not an “if”, but “when” situation. If you burn, you’ll probably lose a fire. Hard to be dissected, but needed to be done. Losing a burn has lasting impacts on the humans involved. 

It is important to get the positive message out about prescribed fire. Consistent messaging across the board. We all need to work on this, and perhaps the MPFC can play a role in this. Promote prescribed fire not just for ecological purposes, but for fuel management.

1. MI DNR, NGOs, Fort Custer, Consultants, Educators, Others?

   1. Season of catch-up? Facilitating and impeding factors

Wildlife division is 60% of burns, put a lot of priority burns on growing season. The other 40% is between parks and FRD. But staff it all out west. That has been an issue for years.

1. Shared by Andy Vander Yacht: First is 1 of 3 articles...second is story map! Spark and Flames blog post https://sparksandflamesmi.com/2021/07/22/the-prescription-for-michigan-more-fire/?fbclid=IwAR3a5_PXn8Bhal-ZE19jzYhCGmK1BF5ArAuKyar-jaBQb6_qtvo5c5ofl4g

2. https://apps.npr.org/us-wildfires-impact-environment-climate-change/ 

10:00am – 11:30pm Subcommittee Reports (9:25-9:45 – Training, 11:15-11:30pm – Outreach)

* Notes from subcommittees can be found in the MPFC Google Drive (contact info@firecouncil.org for access) 

TRAINING, CERTIFICATION, AND CAPACITY Subcommittee Report (10:00am-11:00am)

1. Related MI PFC goals

   1. Top 3 perceived barriers to RX fire in Michigan, based on surveys:

      1. Liability, Legislation, and Risk Management

      2. Fire Training Availability and Qualification Standards

      3. Limited Resources for Prescribed Fire

   2. Top priorities for MI PFC this year…

      1. Establish MI Certified Burn Manager Program

1. Private landowner and non-agency training and capacity

1. Top priorities for MI PFC over the next 5 years…

   1. More training – Certified Burn Manager Program

   2. Volunteer Rx fire capacity coordination

1. Members at large: Szczepanski, Reibel, Rehagen, Vander Yacht, Palmgren, Martin, McGowan-Stinski, Richards, Bradshaw

2. Chair: Steve Woods and John Taylor – REPORT on latest sub-committee meeting

   1. Blend MI CBMP and Capacity Coordination into USFS LSRP Grant

      1. Add devoted time/resources above Glenn’s herculean efforts

      2. Vander Yacht files on drive

         1. Current barriers to implementation as indicated by DNR

         2. Funding Opps: MiWORKS, MI DNR outside FRD, NFWF (TN Rx Fire Strike team example), MI Invasive Species Grant Program, American Forests Foundation, Registration fees, NGO coordination, NE Regional PFC, 2021 National Rx Fire Act, funded graduate students, and more.

         3. Michigan Registered Forester Program a model for tracking (www.Michigan.gov/RegisteredForester, Brenda Haskill)

Steve Woods update on Training and Cert subcommittee. Brian Shlaffler Region 9 fuels lead presentation, we have 1-2% of fire happening across federal and state landscapes. Lots of obstacles to burning on private lands. 70% of wildfires occur on private lands. Insurance is hard to get for private lands burning. Took a year of tough negotiations for HP with insurance companies to get insurance. Appplying for funding through FS landscape scale restoration program to establish a fire collaborative. TREX and LSR proposal will help to get people to get trained and get fire on the ground. Establish a mobile fire cache. Provide opportunities for basic training. Talking with land conservancies and conservation districts about how to do fire safely and collaborate so that everyone participates on each other’s fires. Not enough staff in these orgs, and contractors are hard to come by. Left meeting with next steps including working on the proposal, and have discussions with MDNR leadership (Steve has call with Dan Laux this afternoon). 

PBAs could help Counties, township, city and tribal leaders to manage emergency response regionally. 

Andy shared the barriers indicated by MDNR to the certified burn manager program. Glenn is actively trying to pursue and overcome these barriers. 

Barriers: DNR program funding, DNR priorities, DNR legal office sign-off, background checks, written form for previous Rx experience, course curriculum, certification database, violation reporting system, verifying violations, assessing points, appeal process, who make final certify/decertify decisions, reciprocity standards. Funding someone to get this done with MDNR will grease the skids, though money isn’t the only stopper. If USFS/Society of American Foresters starts making some efforts from the top down, that would put some pressure on the DNR to make changes. Lateral changes like the PBM law on MI books. MPFC would be bottom up. If we did all three at the same time, we could make a difference. Look into discussing with the Natural Resource Commission. We could push the fire agenda through this. If you sign up ahead of time you get 10 minutes at the podium. If you sign up day of you get 2 minutes. Why we need prescribed fire, how it would help with wildfire, how we need to build capacity. Could put pressure on Chief of FRD, this could impact policy. 8 of 12 meetings are in Lansing, the other 4 are around the state. Do all three efforts at the same time for the most chances of making a difference. Pressure from constituents is critical, USFS needs that, too. Outreach to all policy makers and local units and communities is critical. We need to have data to support that we have a group of people who are interested in the certification. Engage constituents and tax base. We need to show that we have a lot of people interested in getting the certification. We need to build pressure, political or otherwise. 

(Vander Yacht) From the recent NE Regional PFC Meeting: Our friend Lenya is even doing this is CA: https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000007770906/california-wildfires-prescribed-fire.html?smid=url-share 0.2 FTE (Ohio) to 1.0 FTE (Florida)

(McGowan-Stinski) NE Regional PFC Meeting recordings: https://www.northeasternwildfire.net/resilient-landscapes/ne-mw-regional-prescribed-fire-council-coordinating-group/ 

Forum recording that includes Ohio and Florida CPBM coordinators/developers > NE-“MW RX Council Forum May 19 2021 Recording” http://lakestatesfiresci.net/NE%20MW%20Regional%20Fire%20Council/NE-MW%20RXCouncil-ForumMay192021-Recording.mp4 

Michigan Firefighting Council might be a track to consider. (https://www.mabasmi.org) 

(Richards) Maybe Dakota could write up how it could integrate into the process or support the pressure campaign.

Link to MI State Law: https://casetext.com/regulation/michigan-administrative-code/department-natural-resources/forest-resource-division/control-of-open-and-prescribed-burning/section-r-281426-prescribed-burn-manager-certification-original-application-and-requirements 

1. TREX 2021 (Richards): TREX is up and running with support from The Ember Alliance and Huron Pines. We will be offering a 130/190 field day right before that, and we will offer another in the next eight weeks.

2. 130/190 – another this fall and a field day before TREX (Richards) Steve Woods Training Chair approves for a Fall FFT2 training. Dakota will pick a date for by Thursday with a backup date for inclement weather. KNC to host. 

1. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH Subcommittee Report (11:10 – 11:15am)

1. Related MI PFC goals

   1. More education and outreach

   2. Private landowner outreach

2. Members at large: Richards, Marshall, Frye, Rehagen, Taylor, LaButte, Szczepanski

3. Chair: Stephanie Bradshaw – REPORT on latest sub-committee meeting

   1. Summary of outreach ideas 

   2. Sketch of ½ day, full field day, and tabling event ideas

   3. Looking for venues to host, events to table, organizations to partner with

1. BURNING ISSUES 2022 PLANNING COMMITTEE Subcommittee Report (tabled for future meeting)

1. Related MI PFC goals

   1. More education and outreach

   2. Private landowner outreach

1. Members at large: Maier, Szczepanski, McGowan-Stinski, Marshall, Judge, Richards, Bradshaw

2. Chair: Vander Yacht (1st meeting Sept 1, 1-3 PM) (Contact info@firecouncil.org for Zoom link)

   1. Historical timeline and past speakers/topics

   2. Virtual vs. in-person on February 1-3 2022?

   3. Craig and Jack’s new model? Business model flow chart with alternatives?

10:50am – 11:15am  MI PFC Finance Updates (Stephanie Diep)

1. Merchandise options: Stephanie did a lot of work with online places, however there are concerns about quality and buying local. There is some ease in the fact that the items ship direct, but that might not outweigh the quality issue. More discussion to follow. Michele will follow up with prices from Alfie, too.

2. 2021 finance summary: Stephanie reported the income and expenses through the current calendar year. IRPG was primary expense. All FY21 finances coming out to a profit of $45.78. We have $10,221.70 in the PNC account.

3. Banking issues and solutions: Stephanie will get new EIN, have Paul transfer move money to a local bank account that she will set up.

4. Proposed FY 2022 Draft Budget: Decisions on # of training events and costs affiliated with Burning Issues need to be hammered out.

Tabled for future discussions: Other Rx Fire Network Happenings (McGowan-Stinski)

1. Update on NE and Midwest Regional Fire Council

2. Fueling Collaboration Panel Series 2021-2022

   1. New website: https://www.fuelingcollab.com/ 

   2. 6 Fire Science Exchanges, and both Northern and Southern Research Stations USFS

   3. 6 panels, 90 min, lunch hour (12 – 1:30 PM Eastern), 3rd Thursday of each month.

      1. October 21, 2021 - Not Seeing the Forage for the Trees (wildlife and fire)

      2. November 18, 2021- Earth, Wind, and Fire (fire and soils and soil carbon)

      3. December 16, 2021- Fire effects on timber values in mixed woods (focus on mixed wood or pine systems and fire)

      4. January 20, 2022 - Smoke is NOT just Smoke

      5. February 17, 2022 - There’s WUI in the East?

      6. March 17, 2022 - Rethinking #goodfire – benefits beyond fuel reduction