The FAC CIRCULAR

Offering you Fire Adaptation Ideas Outside the Box

The vision of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy reads: “To safely and effectively extinguish fire when needed; use fire where allowable; manage our natural resources; and as a nation, to live with wildland fire.” When we think about this we often focus on the last clause (living with wildland fire). It can be easy to forget, in this relentless quest to change our fire outcomes, that how we extinguish and use wildland fire is also part of the vision. Many, if not most, wildfire practitioners can articulate the three goals of the Cohesive Strategy (fire adapted communities, resilient landscapes and safe and effective response) but few actively work across all three of those goals. 

From Rangeland Fire Protection Associations to the creation of Potential Operational Delineations, communities are exploring what it means to safely and effectively respond to wildland fire. Who should respond to wildland fires? How are local fire departments engaging in the wildlands? Are there places we can use local knowledge, together with the best in fire science, to make decisions about fire control and management? How can communities interact with incident management teams or share their values before a fire to better inform decision-making on the ground? This month’s newsletter is designed to highlight the multifaceted nature of wildfire response.

Whether you are digging line, igniting prescribed fires, completing pre-fire planning, helping to coordinate community-based fire protection, or working to better coordinate with incident management teams, you are supporting safe and effective response. Wildfire response matters to all of us, whether we are actively fighting fire or not. 

Whether you are responding on the fireline, from a conference room, or working remotely from your home, we wish you all a safe and healthy summer. 

Forward together,

The FAC Net Staff

Want to share a story or resource with FAC Net? Have feedback on this newsletter or our weekly blog? We’d love to hear from you.

This month we share some advice to improve, not just the fires of tomorrow, but literally tomorrow’s fire. This advice was adapted from Co-Managing Wildfire: Conversations You Need to Have Right Now, by Branda Nowell, Ph.D., Anne-Lise Velez, Ph.D. and Toddi Steelman, Ph.D.

Meet and get to know your counterparts before you are faced with co-managing a fire. “Effective co-management often requires tough conversations and a willingness to give one another the benefit of the doubt.”

Get “off on the right foot” by sharing information and setting expectations. “Knowing your jurisdictional counterparts and setting mutual expectations for when contact will be made about potential threats is a low cost/high return strategy that promotes a climate of mutual respect.” 

Break through “bureaucratic institutional and cultural barriers”… “Offers to 'help' were sometimes described as a cultural taboo within the fire community, communicating a lack of confidence in counterparts regarding their ability to handle things on their own. A 'don’t worry, we got this' culture was also described as continuing to pervade the incident command world across multiple jurisdictions — likely an artifact from a previous era when fires were smaller and less active, and management objectives were less complex.” 

Create the space for “agency administrators to work together to provide a shared set of objectives and priorities for the incident (not just for their jurisdictions). One of the most well-reviewed co-management tools we heard about was a regularly scheduled agency administrator meeting. This was a private meeting where current and/or prospective agency administrators met together with the incident commander to share concerns, vet strategies, offer suggestions and assistance, and be heard.”            

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In an effort to expand the boundary of the possible, every month we’ll bring you visions, thoughts and advice toward a better fire future. Want to share your thoughts? Contact us! 

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