23 August 2022
MPFC Steering Committee Meeting
Tying in! Tapping of the drip torches at the Pierce Cedar Creek Institute Learn and Burn spring 2022. Photo by Nora Duncan.
Attendance
ONLINE: Amy Frye (USDA), Steve Woods (Huron Pines), Michael Hahn (City of Ann Arbor), Vic Bogosian (Band of Potawatomi), Mary Parr (Pierce Cedar Creek Institute), John Taylor (Ball State University), Kristina Kennedy (MUCC)
IN-PERSON (Rose Lake Shooting Range, East Lansing): Stephanie Diep (Kalamazoo Nature Center), Michele Richards (MI Army National Guard), Bruce Miller (TNC), Jimmy Provost (Huron-Clinton Metro Parks), Katie Carlile (Huron-Clinton Metro Parks), Dennis Ireland (MSFA), Glen Palmgren (MI DNR), Jarod Reibel (Ed Lowe)
Vote Chair/Vice Chair
Chair: Amy Frye nominated by Stephanie Diep, Glenn Palmgren seconded.
Unanimous yes vote.
Vice Chair: Jarod Reibel nominated by Michele, seconded by Amy Frye. Unanimously voted in.
Keep Amy through 2024 BI, Jarod will take over then and we elect a new vice chair at that time.
Burning Issues Planning
SAVE THE DATE: 23rd Annual MPFC Meeting and 9th Annual Burning Issues Workshop will be Tuesday and Wednesday February 7 & 8, 2023
Abundant yes to in-person option. Hybrid might be possible, Mary Parr/PCCI said they have pulled it off. Hybrid works best for some people because of travel. Could potentially waive fee for using the space at PCCI (Mary to check). Option for speakers to remote in for presentations. Option to share recordings of sessions free online after event if online attendance isn’t possible.
Workshop online was not as good, talks online were okay. Aim for in-person with hybrid.
Michele Richards will contact Wally to set it up at Camp Grayling for digital
We’ll plan for one day, but keep it flexible to potentially do a two day. Social evening between events.
Day two a “robust fire council” annual meeting – strategizing session for steering committee members.
Planning team for speakers for BI: Stephanie, Jarod, Amy, Michele, Lee, Dennis Ireland has a little time to help us, Lee Osterland may have some time, and Craig and Jack may be able to help find speakers but will not be involved in planning this year. View letter from TPOS/Lake States.
Approximately $1000 (~18 hours) will be spent out of MPFC funds to support Stephanie’s time for planning/admin support for BI.
Any suggestions for topics or speakers?
· 484-1 important components of a burn plan and examples.
· Research people have been doing on post-burn monitoring.
0900 12 September 2022 BI planning meeting virtual contact Stephanie Diep (info@firecouncil.org) for link if you want to join
Outreach and Education subcommittee update (Stephanie Diep)
Brochures printed for MPFC available from Stephanie Diep. Electronic copy on website.
Kalamazoo Nature Center will be doing a burn under contract for Oshtemo Township in October. Three small rain garden plots in Flesher Field, Oshtemo Township Parks potential for a small learn and burn event. Have it as an option to have MPFC’s name on it and a booth at the event. Funds from White Oak Grant can be used for this event, as well. Committee agreed good option to pursue, more details to come.
$4000 left in white oak grant that goes into next year.
Training subcommittee update (Steve Woods)
Not a lot of participation/meetings recently. Regrouping on TREX training. Our participation from other agencies was not what we hoped it would be. Making TREX sanctioned by the MPFC would make it easier for folks to justify their time for it.
Steve’s Landscape Scale Restoration Grant has been funded, and USFS is about 4-6 months behind schedule to get agreements in place. That will help to be able to plan and fund some of these training experiences. Overcoming Barriers in Prescribed Fire and Northern Michigan Prescribed Fire Collaborative. Training NGO/private land holders in fire (S130/190, fire field days) may get some help from USFS. Hoping to do some experiences on state-owned land at CG.
Revisit creating training calendar conversation. How do we maintain it? What format does it take? How does it get updated and maintained? Steve envisions a regional calendar. Maybe we can lean on the regional association of prescribed fire to help us with that. Zach Prusak might be willing to support us in that.
What we do is an altruistic thing, and it’s good to acknowledge that.
Burn plan writing workshop is a great fit for an initial action in the Landscape Scale grant. Learn and Burn workshops are supportable in the northern lower. Same for 130/190.
Bruce Miller TNC will support TREX, TNC has to justify their time, but they have more time to give us.
Non profit leadership in MI fire is a limiting factor. Really hoping to pull MDNR and USFS folks in. TREX appears quite hopeful.
Treasurer’s Report (Stephanie Diep)
Stephanie gave a nice presentation regarding our finances. Note that historic data was pulled from records within the MPFC hard drive but appear to be lacking total accuracy. The Historical Data charts should be used to see general/overall trends not specific numeric totals.
Majority of expenses so far in FY22 were reimbursed by White Oak Grant.
Most years MPFC profited slightly over expenses. Revenue mainly came from trainings and annual meeting/Burning Issues. Some years of high expense such as 2018 were for one-time purchases such as a screen and projector. *Note data may be lacking or inaccurate for years prior to 2020.
Revenue flows mainly came from S-130/S-190 trainings and annual Burning Issues Workshops. Merchandise brought in a decent amount in 2021 but can not be relied on for generating annual revenue. Finding other stable sources of income such as grants or sponsors/donors would be beneficial. *Note data may be lacking or inaccurate for years prior to 2020. Such as Annual Workshops were held 2013-2018 but no data was recorded specifically for them. These charts are meant to show overall trends not specific numbers.
MPFC does not bring in enough to fund the admin for the time needed (3hrs/wk). Current funding for the admin has come from a sponsor organization but they cannot continue to invest so much moving forward. Learn & Burn event planning/coordination of admin was funded by White Oak Grant. White Oak Grant only goes through 2023. Council agreed upon MPFC funding admin for BI23 planning and coordination for this FY22 as that is the bulk of admin time, estimated 18 hours $1,000. The rest of the MPFC admin time will be funded by the sponsor until we revisit revenue options such as grants.
One revenue model was asking donations from supporters for annual meeting ($300-$500 lump sum each). Stephanie attended very informative forum about Alabama Fire Council funding model and Illinois regional rxfire mapping. Can view recording and sources at:
PDF of Prescribed fire council fundraising & meeting management – John R. Stivers
2022 sponsor letter with letterhead zoom – John Stivers
PDF of Illinois Prescribed Fires Accomplished Map – John McCabe
Does it make sense to increase cost of BI? Continuing Education Units are more expensive. Reasonable to spend $50-$100 per person for this type of event.
Student Rates and scholarships should be available. Private landowners are more likely to get drawn in and be more engaged by Learn and Burns rather than BI. BI aimed towards professionals.
How many hours a week would be ideal for Stephanie to do admin for MPFC if money weren’t an issue? Current ideal amount of hours is 3-5 a week to answer emails, attend meetings and subcommittee meetings, manage social media and finances, etc. If we had more funding she could do things like mapping burn data statewide. She has GIS training and software through KNC. Could be up to 10-15 hours per week max.
We need to pay some attention to writing grants as a Council with member orgs to get funding to support admin. If you are writing a grant related to fire, consider writing in an amount to support MPFC’s admin work as part of “supporting statewide burn capacity through outreach and education and networking and professional inter-organizational discussions.”
Next Quarterly Meeting
Tues Nov 22nd 11am-2pm w/ lunch (EST)
Hybrid, in-person location Grayling area TBD
Work out technical difficulties of hybrid meetings by using the Owl camera that Jarod has.
Otsego Library has a good meeting room. Good spot in Roscommon, Au Sable River Center. Jays Sporting Goods. *Steve Woods will pick a northern Michigan meeting spot, so we will be somewhere up north and set up the meeting space. 24 September deadline for booking facility for next meeting. Stephanie will get it up on the website events and email.
Other Conversations
Bruce Miller brought up tracking prescribed burns in state. Type of burn, who’s burning, by county, by month, who is doing that. Look at Missouri site to see what’s possible. Something for us as a council to look at. Who is going to do the work. Each agency would have to do work in providing the council with the numbers. This is a priority for DNR Forest Action Plans.
Midwest Invasive Species Information Network has created the ability to track prescribed fires as a treatment. If we could all collectively agree on that then we could use that as our database. Bulk uploads are available, and also you can request data from them. *We need to compare Missouri’s site to MISIN’s site to see if it would be a workable solution. Maybe tie into IRWIN database in the long run to have RX fire in there as well.
FYI City of Detroit is looking into adding prescribed fire into their natural resources management.
MI State Firemen’s Association has a new web page and we can add things/events to be notified to all firefighters. Contact MFA to add events.
