Michigan Prescribed Fire Council Quarterly Meeting
Date: March 12, 2024
Online
Attendance:
Stephanie Diep (Kalamazoo Nature Center)
Jack McGowan-Stinski (Lake States Fire Science Consortium)
Julie Mclaughlin (DNR-Contractor)
Ben Savoie (District Forester)
Andy Henriksen (FPAC-NRCS, MI)
Dr. Greg Corace (Alpena Montmorency Conservation District)
Jarod Reibel (Ed Lowe)
Nathan Jeruzal (NWS Grand Rapids)
Frye, Amy (FPAC-NRCS, MI)
Jeb Barzen (WI PFC)
Laura Judge (FPAC-NRCS, MI)
Michele Richards (DMVA)
Mark Sargent
Steve Woods (Huron Pines)
Darwin Schultz
Vic Bogosian
Todd Aschenbach (GVSU)
Tina Stephens (Ann Arbor NAP)
Policy Governance: By-Laws Article I: Objectives
Outlined in MPFC’s new strategic plan, each quarterly meeting will include reviewing a portion of the bylaws and revising as necessary, with any proposed changes being voted on during the following meeting.
Discussion was had debating whether or not objectives belong in a set of by-laws. By-laws are how we conduct business, where as strategic plan outlines our goals and how we plan to get there. It was determined that the proposed changes would include changing the objectives outlined in the by-laws to reflect the updated objectives outlined in the strategic plan, and to have article I serve as a bridge to the strategic plan and retitling article I to “objectives, goals, and strategies”, while removing the redundant objectives prior to the by-laws. Jarod R. will craft an edited Article I, and an official vote for adoption of changes will take place during the next quarterly meeting.
Photo of social hour at Burning Issues 2024 located at Fort Custer Training Center, Augusta, MI.
Burning Issues Recap
Burning Issues planning team members reflected on event, detailing how they viewed it as a success, noting good attendance both in-person and virtual, with less virtual hiccups than the year prior, and overall positive feedback from attendees. The event wouldn’t be possible without all of the great speakers donating their time and knowledge. It was great to have Lake States and Tall Grass Prairie Fire Science Consortiums involved again and this year’s involvement was a healthier role with less logistical responsibilities.
During the financial update, Stephanie noted this was the most successful event from a profit standpoint so far, more than double the past two years, even with 40% of registrants receiving some kind of promo for waived or reduced registration cost. The greater profit was mainly a result less billed admin time, and lower admin rates contributing to the profit margin. Planning committee provided a lot of extra logistical support to reduce the amount put on the admin position.
Jeb Barzen, noted WI PFC began working with universities to host annual meeting conferences, noting discounting rentals, essentially offset by the university sponsoring student attendance.
This year’s Burning Issues was one of the more profitable events in the past few years as considerable amount of time was saved from administrative time by dedicated volunteers to help with logistics and the admin rate being reduced to 50% previous year’s rates. Sponsorships came in about the same as last year with a few returning sponsors and a few new. Merchandise sales were as expected. Despite offering 40% of participants free or discounted tickets, ticket revenue was still good.
Financial Update Quarter 2
Total Income is at $13,733.44 of the budgeted $42,220.00 annual income. Burning Issues sponsors came in lower than expected but we made good revenue off ticket sales and as expected on merchandise sales.
We have spent $7,411.51 of the $37,720.00 annual budget. Highest expenses are for administrative time (though this is now at a discounted half rate compared to last year), burning issues expense, and restocking merchandise (more t-shirts, pens, and stickers).
Subcommittee Updates
Outreach: Tina Stephens
Tina Stephens has taken over as the head of the outreach subcommittee. Meeting next week, and anyone interested in joining is encouraged to contact Tina. Will be determining what the committee wants to do and has the capacity for. A lot of the focus will be put towards the Mi Forest to Mi Faucet grant and determining how we partner with organizations. Several organizations have already expressed interest in hosting learn and burns, being able to cover most of the planning, and mainly would need some expenses covered, along with supplies and volunteer time.
Training and Qualifications: Steve Woods
Prescribed fire training exchange (TREX) taking place May 5th to 15th. The course has been filled with 35 people and getting RSVP's from students, 25 or more being FFT2’s, several never having burnt before.
Huron Pines in collaboration with the fire council has been working to establish the Northern Michigan Prescribed Fire Collaborative and trying to get the northern lower NGO’s together and elevate fire literacy and training. MOU for that is circulating currently, with next steps being to develop a mobile fire cache. First fire field day planned for May 30th at Chippewa Nature Center.
The other big initiative of the training and Qualification subcommittee is the training and qualifications MOU which will facilitate participating in training and qualifications activities, including prescribed fire for the purpose of people gaining additional qualifications. Will be sent out to partners at the end of the week. We would also like to have as many of our prescribed Fire Council member organizations, as possible, sign the document.
Nonprofit Collaborator Discussion
We’ve previously discussed becoming a nonprofit, with the primary advantage of not going nonprofit being better involvement from the agencies, but one consequence is the inability to apply for grants. There is a lot of grant money available currently, and a lot of discussion about what MPFC does and how we fit into certain roles. We have had conversations about how we may be missing out on opportunities, we can't really have much staff capacity at our current level. Kalamazoo Nature Center has graciously had staff involved, with Stephanie as Administrator at a discounted rate, and served a fiduciary role for the Council, but they are local organization and we're a statewide organization along with having statewide partners who need a nonprofit collaborator in fire in Michigan, but there aren’t many organizations who are well positioned to operate at a statewide level when talking about fire. In many states, TNC is able to do that, but that isn’t the case in Michigan. One organization that would be a potential option is Tall Timbers Research Institute. If we're interested in pursuing that possibility, we’d want to have idea of what that might look like from an administrative and operational side. The Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils also hopes to be available as a 501c3 fiduciary organization for any State councils, with a lot going on behind the scenes now to make this happen, with the potential able to be serve as that umbrella organization. More time will be dedicated to this topic in June.
Jeb Barzen added that Wisconsin prescribed Fire Council is a 501C3 which has MOU's with the Department of Natural Resources and with the Forest Service and with the NRCS, and have Forest Service grants through The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin as sub-grantees.
Strategic Plan – Tribal Acknowledgement
We’ve adopted our strategic plan but acknowledged that we still had work to be done when it comes to the various tribes across the state, which would take time to be done right and format an item that they all can agree upon. With the busy spring burn season and TREX for many of us, capacity has been limited and there hasn’t been much movement here since our last meeting.
DNR Certified Burn Manager Program Update
Michigan DNR has created their fire specialist position who will also serve as a member of the Council, along with being tasked of overseeing the certified burn manager program. Jeff Corser was selected, but will need to cover some other positions until they can back fill them, but he looks forward to attending in the near future.
(Update as of 5/22/24 – Position is currently vacant again and was reposted, with application window already closed.)
Partner Updates
Weather Update
Nathan Jeruzal with NWS Grand Rapids explained that the fire weather partner agency coordination meeting was held a couple weeks ago with all the state and federal agencies in lower Michigan and one of the things that came out from that people should be aware of is that red flag warning criteria is going to be adjusted for lower Michigan. The temperature criteria will be taken out of the criteria, which was suggested by the Forest Service and agreed upon.
The availability of weekly fire weather briefings outside of fire agencies were discussed as they are recognized as valuable tools for those who are able to access them. Nathan would need to make sure they follow all laws and regulations but would look into options to try and get it to others, as briefings are sent out after those meeting. Another agency may be able to distribute after it is out of NWS’s hands.
Michigan Grassland Coalition
Jarod explained that Pheasants Forever and the DNR are spearheading the Michigan Grassland coalition, which once was the Michigan Pheasant Initiative. A lot of discussion about grassland management and burning, with capacity issues being identified as a major problem. Local chapters of Pheasants Forever interested in conducting their own burns and wanting/needing trainings may be an avenue to bring new partners into the mix.
Future Meetings
June 11th (11am-2pm) – Jay’s in Gaylord with virtual option
Sept 10th (11am-2pm) – Upper Peninsula – TBD with virtual option
Dec 10th (11am – 2pm) – Edward Lowe Foundation in Cassopolis with virtual option
