Fire today ManagementVolume 70 • No. 2 • 2010 Across Agency Lines United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service 2010 Photo Contest • Miscellaneous (fire effects, fire weather, Application granting the Forest Service fire-dependent communities or species, rights to use your image. For a copy of etc.) the release, see http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/ Deadline for submission is fmt/release.pdf. 6 p.m. eastern time, Rules Wednesday, December 1, 2010 • The contest is open to everyone. You Disclaimer may submit an unlimited number of • A panel of judges with significant pho- entries taken at any time, but you must tography and publishing experience will Fire Management Today (FMT) invites you submit each image with a separate determine the winners. Their decision to submit your best fire-related images release/application form. You may not is final. to be judged in our photo competition. enter images that were judged in previ- • Images depicting safety violations, as Entries must be received by close of ous FMT contests. determined by the panel of judges, will business at 6 p.m. eastern time on • You must have the authority to grant be disqualified. Wednesday, December 1, 2010. the Forest Service unlimited use of • Life or property cannot be jeopardized the image, and you must agree that to obtain images. Awards the image will become public domain. • The Forest Service does not encourage Winning images will appear in a future Moreover, the image must not have or support deviation from firefighting issue of FMT and may be publicly displayed been previously published in any pub- responsibilities to capture images. at the Forest Service’s national office in lication. • Images will be eliminated from the Washington, DC. • FMT accepts only digital images at the competition if they are obtained by ille- highest resolution using a setting with gal or unauthorized access to restricted Winners in each category will receive the at least 3.2 mega pixels. Digital image areas, show unsafe firefighting practices following awards: files should be TIFFs or highest quality (unless that is their expressed pur- • 1st place: One 20- by 24-inch framed JPGs. Note: FMT will eliminate date- pose), or are of low technical quality copy of your image. stamped images. Submitted images will (for example, have soft focus or camera • 2nd place: One 16- by 20-inch framed not be returned to the contestant. movement). copy of your image. • You must indicate only one category per • 3rd place: One 11- by 14-inch framed image. To ensure fair evaluation, FMT To help ensure that all files are kept copy of your image. reserves the right to change the compe- together, e-mail your completed release • Honorable mention: One 8- by 10- inch tition category for your image. form/contest application and digital image framed copy of your image. • You must provide a detailed caption for file at the same time. each image. For example: A Sikorsky Categories S-64 Skycrane delivers retardant on E-mail entries to: • Wildland fire the 1996 Clark Peak Fire, Coronado [email protected] • Aerial resources National Forest, AZ. • Wildland-urban interface fire • You must submit with each digi- Postmark Deadline is 6 p.m., Wednesday, • Prescribed fire tal image a completed and signed December 1, 2010 • Ground resources Release Statement and Photo Contest Fire Management Today is published by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. The Secretary of Agriculture has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of this Department. Fire Management Today is for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, at: Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: 202-512-1800 Fax: 202-512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 Fire Management Today is available on the World Wide Web at <http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fmt/index.html>. Tom Vilsack, Secretary Melissa Frey U.S. Department of Agriculture General Manager Thomas L. Tidwell, Chief Monique LaPerriere, EMC Publishing Arts Forest Service Managing Editor Tom Harbour, Director Mark Riffe, METI Inc., EMC Publishing Arts Fire and Aviation Management Editor The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audio- tape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimi- nation, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. July 2010 Trade Names (FMT) 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. Fire Management Today 2 Fire Management today Volume 70 • No. 2 • 2010 On the Cover: Contents Anchor Point: Together, Everyone Achieves More . .4 Tom Harbour A Fire Protection Triangle for the Wildland–Urban Interface . .6 Tom Tidwell and Hutch Brown Bureau of Land Management Fire and Aviation: Unique Contributions From a Unique Agency . .10 Ken Frederick State Forestry’s Role in Wildland Fire: Suppression, Community Protection, Cooperation, and More . .14 On the Cover: Dan Smith Supporting Cultural Uniqueness: The Bureau of Indian Affairs America’s wildland firefighters are among the best in the world. Here, Branch of Wildland Fire Management . .19 the Columbia River Division Initial Robyn Broyles Attack Crew prepares for action, August 2009. Photo: Aaron Black- General Services Administration’s Role in Wildland Firefighting . .24 Schmidt, Ardenvoir, WA John Barnicle and William Hicks U .S . Fish and Wildlife Service: Keeping Fire on Our Side . .26 Karen Miranda Gleason The National Park Service: A History of Wildland Fire in Resource Management . .31 The USDA Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Roberta D’Amico and Bill Halainen Management Staff has adopted a logo reflecting three central principles of wildland Wildland Fire Decision Support System Air Quality Tools . .36 fire management: Sim Larkin, Tim Brown, Pete Lahm, and Tom Zimmerman • Innovation: We will respect and value Coarse Estimation of Local Fire Return Intervals for Fire thinking minds, voices, and thoughts of those that challenge the status quo while Management . .41 focusing on the greater good. Matthew Tuten • Execution: We will do what we say we A Foundation for Initial Attack Simulation: The Fried and Fried Fire will do. Achieving program objectives, improving diversity, and accomplishing Containment Model . .44 targets are essential to our credibility. Jeremy S. Fried and Burton D. Fried • Discipline: What we do, we will do well. Fiscal, managerial, and operational discipline are at the core of our ability to fulfill our mission. Firefighter and public safety is our first priority. Volume 70 • No. 2 • 2010 3 by Tom Harbour Anchor Director, Fire and Aviation Management Point Forest Service, Washington, DC together, everyone AChieves More here are few things more partnerships are very important to International Fire important in wildland fire man- the work we do day-to-day and are Assistance Tagement than partnerships. In highly valued. Many other partners our fire prevention work, in our are less visible, though, and we are Many nations request FAM assis- fuels management work, in our avi- proud to build on those relation- tance in all aspects of wildland fire ation work, in our fire suppression ships, described below, and to form management. In such situations, work, partnerships make things new relationships in order to best FAM represents not only the indi- happen! Some of our long-estab- serve the Nation. vidual agency, but the United States lished partnerships were developed of America. The Forest Service has in response to the rapid growth National Aeronautics mutual assistance agreements with of communities in or close to our Mexico, Canada, Australia, and New and Space Zealand and border agreements public lands. As a result, we have Administration established cooperative agreements with Mexico and Canada. FAM has with States and many local entities In 2003, when the Columbia continuing long-term cooperative and outlined how each will respond Shuttle exploded and broke apart programs with Mexico, Russia, and provide mutual aid and cost- over the State of Texas, incident Australia, Portugal, South Korea, effective fire protection for public management teams from the U.S. the Republic of China, and—most lands and their surrounding com- Department of Agriculture, Forest recently—with Greece. FAM sup- munities. Additional partnerships Service, responded to support the ports a continuing effort to assist include other Federal firefighting National Aeronautics and Space international programs with inci- agencies,