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Fire Management Today, June 2021, Vol. 79 No. 2

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United States Department of Agriculture JUNE 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 2 Aircraft Dispatching Subject Index, 2000–2020 Author Index, 1970–2020 Fire Management Today is published by the Forest Service, an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. The purpose of Fire Management Today is to share information related to wildland fire management for the benefit of the wildland fire community. Fire Management Today is available online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire/fire-management-today. Victoria Christiansen, Chief Forest Service Patricia A. Grantham, Acting Director Kaari Carpenter, General Manager • Hutch Brown, Editor Fire and Aviation Management In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.) should contact the responsible agency or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English. To file a program discrimination complaint, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, AD–3027, found online at How to File a Program Discrimination Complaint and at any USDA office, or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: [email protected]. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. Trade Names The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement of any product or service by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Individual authors are responsible for the technical accuracy of the material presented in Fire Management Today. JUNE 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 2 www.fs.fed.us #forestservice On the Cover: Retardant drop on the 2016 Cedar Fire, Sequoia National Forest, California. Photo: Lance Cheung, USDA Forest Service. IN THIS JUNE 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 2 ISSUE Anchor Point: The (Unprecedented) Fire Indexes for Fire Management Today Year—What’s Next? Hutch Brown. .10 Patty Grantham .....................4 Subject Index—Fire Management Today, Aircraft Dispatching and Its Challenges Volumes 60‒78 Randall C. Thomas ..................6 Hutch Brown. .12 The Role of Fire Management Today Author Index—Fire Management Today, Hutch Brown. 8 Volumes 31‒78 Hutch Brown. .43 Firefighter and public safety is our first priority. GUIDELINES for Contributors Fire Management Today 3 ANCHOR POINT The (Unprecedented) 2020 Fire Year—What’s Next? n a recent virtual meeting, a The end of 2020 continued to set new colleague reported that her office records: nationwide, over 1.7 million had stopped using the word acres (700,000 ha) burned from October I“unprecedented” when discussing through November, basically a whole 2020. She explained that the term was other fire season. used every day, but then the next day By Patty A. Grantham Acting Director would dawn and something even more Looking at those numbers and records, I think the normal reaction is to be Fire and Aviation Management “unprecedented” would occur, canceling USDA Forest Service the previous day’s uniqueness. stunned, exhausted, or maybe both. I know I feel both. I also know that the My colleague did a perfect job of next challenge awaits us, and the real help us with our incident management describing the world I’ve found myself question is: What do we do in response team succession challenges? We’ve in for the better part of 2020. I suspect to 2020? heard from crews that they’ve you’ve been living your version of progressed through the season with their the same. Because we’ve been so best health ever. Wouldn’t it be great overwhelmingly busy at work (and to consistently send people home well home), it’s hard to keep track of the There is no reason from an assignment? Muscle memory records set (so far). fashioned over years will push us back to think another 2020 into old business practices. We must We realized in early September that (or worse) does not aggressively resist reverting to our we were moving into record territory await us next year comfort zone. in terms of National Forest System acres burned. Some digging confirmed or the year after, so The second thing we must do is triple- that 2020 was going to be second only we’ve got to be better down on work to restore landscapes to 1910 in the record books. As we prepared. and safeguard communities. There is no made our way through December, we reason to think another 2020 (or worse) found that, in fact, 2020 set the record does not await us next year or the year at 4.9 million acres (2.0 million ha) of after, so we’ve got to be better prepared. National Forest System lands burned. I think the first thing we do is to capture The good news is that a framework for In mid-September, the interagency all we’ve learned in 2020 and make that preparation already exists. In 2010, community hit a record for personnel sure that it sticks with us as we move the interagency fire community initiated deployed to large incidents—32,727— forward. We cannot squander what the National Cohesive Wildland Fire which followed the high-water mark 2 we figured out on the long path of this Management Strategy and finalized weeks earlier for personnel deployed to past year. Everything from accelerating it in 2014. The strategy includes a single geographic area (13,270, in the hygiene, to how we feed people in three main elements: the restoration Northern California Geographic Area). fire camp, to how we keep resources and maintenance of fire-resilient On October 5, the August Complex in in a “bubble” to minimize disease landscapes; the creation of fire-adapted northern California exceeded 1 million transmission, to how we keep records communities; and emergency response acres (400,000 ha) burned. Throughout electronically instead of on paper—we to wildfires. the fall, the fire year continued in the have got to hang onto these new tricks. Great Basin, Southwest, and Rocky In 2020, our fire response was Mountain Geographic Areas, places For example, we figured out how to use exhaustive. As for the other two where it long should have been over. support resources virtually. Could this components, we definitely have room Fire Management Today 4 JUNE 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 2 ANCHOR POINT industrial lands, national parks, and national forests. Tragically, it moved so The Cohesive Strategy is as relevant today as ever: this quickly in some areas that people were past year offered a heartless reminder that fire knows killed. This devastating loss demands a no boundaries. new approach to ever-increasing wildfire in the West. Few people get to experience history in the making, but that is the gift for improvement. On the landscape wildland-urban interface? The Cohesive we were given in these past several treatment front, the Forest Service Strategy equation cannot be balanced months. We must now honor that estimates that we need to increase the until our landscapes and communities gift by translating our best intentions amount of forest management and fuels see robust change in fire resilience to into effective actions for outcomes reduction work done on public lands by match efforts in fire response. that make a lasting difference on two to four times what we’ve historically the ground. I have no doubt we are accomplished. Meaningful and effective The Cohesive Strategy is as relevant ready to meet the next challenge both landscape restoration needs to happen today as ever: this past year offered a collectively and courageously because and happen rapidly. The third element, heartless reminder that fire knows no that’s the way we rose to meet the fire-adapted communities, relies on boundaries. More disturbingly, 2020 challenge of fire year 2020. actions by State and local governments. also demonstrated that fire no longer How are zoning requirements, local follows yesterday’s rules. Fire went In the meantime, I wish you all a chance vegetation management ordinances, and into neighborhoods, communities, and to catch your breath! building codes contributing to keeping vineyards; roared into westside Cascade wildfire from moving into or out of the ecosystems; and ravaged private ■ Fire Management Today 5 JUNE 2021 • VOL. 79 • NO. 2 During an active operational period, multiple fires can require Aircraft air support. A dispatch center might have air resources such as type 1 or type Dispatching 2 helicopters and airtankers. A complicating factor for the aircraft dispatcher is that the geographic area coordination center might direct such and Its aircraft to higher priority fires outside of the dispatcher’s airspace.
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