The Lookout
Volume 5 Issue 5-September 28, 2010

This issue is late and accept my apologizes for the tardiness, but things around here just got wild for a time. However, ,now much of the fruit is picked and on its way to market near you, the fall colors are beginning to show, and the pace of activity has slowed. The inbox of news and views continues to fill with items about the Forest Service and national forests. We'll do our best to get another issue out with the latest information about what is going on by the first week of November.

Starting with the next issue we will also be launching a series of articles about the Weeks Act, probably second only to the Organic Act in importance to the establishment and development of the National Forest System. 2011 is the 100th Anniversary of this legislation, which was critical to the establishment of the eastern National Forests and helped add critical land to many of the western forests.

NAFSR Board of Directors and Membership Meeting, August 23-24

The following narrative was written from the editor's notes of the meeting and to help add context. The official notes of the meeting were recorded by John Combes, Secretary-Treasurer of NAFSR and have recently been distributed to members by the Internet.

The NAFSR Board of Directors and Annual Members Meeting at Seattle-Tacoma Airport was an intense meeting with many association governance issues handled and the opportunity to visit with Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.

Chief Tidwell talked about his agenda, and his hope to be able to spend a number of years as leader of the Forest Service. He is pleased with his working relationship with Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack. His priority agenda includes pressing for better safety for Forest Service people and the public, continued emphasis on forest health, increased cooperation with adjacent communities and landowners, encouraging the concept of looking at landscape management, including more cooperative work with private land owners and emphasis on good science to help forests to adapt to climate changes.

He also stressed the importance of the Forest Service increasing jobs in communities in and adjacent to the forests as part of forest management activities. He is concerned about the lack of forest product infrastructure needed to process material removed from the forests to improve forest resistance to fire, insect and disease and general forest health. He pointed out not too long ago the forest product industry needed the forests, and today the forests need the industry.

Positive discussions with major environmental groups about forest management issues also pleased the Chief, and he wants the dialogue to continue.

NAFSR's hard work to support the FLAME Act was greatly appreciated. He urged the association to continue to support Forest Service research, recreation, and road maintenance programs as well as general forest management and protection efforts.

The Chief discussed the Station Fire incident and the Albuquerque issue of an individual miss-use of a government travel card. He has been personally involved in taking corrective actions to reduce the chance of similar situations reoccurring. In the Albuquerque incident he found his options to recover the performance bonus limited by law, but when the individual involved went to work for a firm contracting with the Forest Service, he was able to have him terminated because of contract rules against hiring former FS employees.

The Station Fire is still simmering and has become political. The Chief is satisfied that the Forest Service leadership made correct decisions during the initial attack period, which has been the focal point of criticism. Lack of clear information flowing to the retiree community may have contributed to the situation and there will be steps taken to make sure retirees have access to reliable information in the future as well as appropriate retiree involvement in future post fire reviews.

The Board thanked the Chief for his willingness to meet with NAFSR

Following Chief Tidwell, the meeting focused on NAFSR governance, and a plan developed by CEO Darrel Kenops to more effectively meet both challenges and opportunities facing the association.

Representatives from the National Forest Foundation, the National Museum of Forest Service History and local Forest Service offices were welcomed to the meeting and encouraged to participate, which they did.

Thanks to member's efforts the association is currently working with 20 plus allied organizations on a variety of national forest and Forest Service issues. NAFSR is seen as a "go to" organization for professional forest management information, and on Capitol Hill, thanks to George Leonard's hard work, NAFSR is respected and listened to by many members of Congress.

Chair Jim Golden discussed the need for by-law changes and commented on the work he is doing with the NAFSR Reforestation committee to understand the issues contributing to national forest reforestation backlog.

Darrel presented a plan to create standing committees focused on specific subject areas, form an executive committee for day-to-day decisions and provide for ad hoc committees for special projects.

The standing committees Darrel proposed are:

Development Committee: The committee is charged with developing strategies and programs for increasing the operating budget. As NAFSR influence increases the need for an increase in operating funds is imperative. It is no longer fair or appropriate to ask members to absorb major travel and other significant association costs out of their own resources.

Membership Committee: The strength of NAFSR depends upon FS retirees being willing to step forward with their wisdom and commitment to the nation's public forests and spend a few hours a month actively involved in NAFSR programs and activities. The short-term goal is to reach a membership of 1,000 in three years.

Communication Committee: NAFSR must have the ability to reach beyond members with information and discussion of issues important to the well being of the national forests, and to counter miss-information about forest management programs on federal and state lands and programs. Currently the newsletter, The Lookout, is the only mass communication vehicle NAFSR has, and it is not adequate for today's gigantic national/ international electronic movement of information.

Awards and Recognition Committee: There is a need for expansion of committee responsibilities beyond the John Mc Guire Award, to develop and manage a reward program recognizing the accomplishments of NAFSR members and people in partner organizations who make significant contributions to NAFSR's mission.

Fire Committee: This committee is in active and working closely with the Forest Service on a variety of fire protection and management policy issues, as well as providing a link between serving fire management leaders and retirees with the experience and wisdom from years dealing with the complexity of fire protection and use.

Wildfire Leadership Council's Draft Cohesive Strategy for Reducing Wildfires

One of the requirements of Federal Land Assistance Management and Enhancement Act (FLAME) was the development of a federal national cohesive strategy to reduce America's wildland fire losses and the cost of firefighting. The Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC), a national level coordinating council sponsored by the Department of Interior, Agriculture and Homeland Security, includes membership from a variety of state, federal and public agencies and organizations interested in the wildland fire problem. It has been tasked by the Secretaries to develop the strategy and report to Congress by November 2010, as required by the FLAME Act.

A WFLC Task Force was organized to meet the strategy deadline; it has conducted a series of low-key public meetings around the country gathering information for use in strategy development. The meetings had little publicity and were rimarily attended by individuals contacted by the Task Force. At the conclusion of the meetings a draft strategy was completed and was made available for comment. NAFSR was invited to comment on the basis of having been represented at a strategy meeting in Wyoming held in conjunction with a Western Forestry Leadership Coalition meeting.

NAFSR has submitted extensive comments prepared by Mike Rogers and several members of the NAFSR Fire Committee. Committee comments call attention to a number of what NAFSR considers important deficiencies. The draft as written, in our opinion does not present a credible strategy for dealing with not only fire protection issues, but also the massive problem of fuels management and the realities of fire protection requirements in Wildland-Urban Interface areas, or for the public and private resource lands. For such an important project the time line for drafting the report and for public response was extremely short.

The draft Cohesive Strategy and NAFSR's comments are available via the Internet. If you are interested in reading them contact your editor. To make sense you'll need both documents, and understand the two documents will eat up considerable file space. It is our understanding more than fifty comments were filed from individuals, forestry and fire agencies interested in the strategy.

PALISADES DISTRICT RANGER AWARDED NATIONAL JOHN MCGUIRE AWARD
OGDEN, UT: On Saturday, August 21 U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, Intermountain Regional Forester Harv Forsgren and the National Association of Forest Service Retirees representative Stan Tixier presented Ron Dickemore, Palisades District Ranger for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, with the nationally recognized John R. McGuire Award at the Heise Campground near Ririe, Idaho.

"Ron is a hands-on leader and his enthusiasm and energy to "care for the land and serve the people" is second to none," said Intermountain Regional Forester Harv Forsgren. "More importantly, Ron knows the land he is responsible to manage. He is continually engaged in working with people to insure their use and enjoyment of the Palisades Ranger District and the Caribou-Targhee National Forest will be sustained for generations to come and ensuring that the mission of the agency is carried out in a responsible and professional manner."

Dickemore has been a District Ranger for 30 years with 24 of those years as the Palisades District Ranger. He received this award for his outstanding performance in accomplishing the mission of the Forest Service, managing natural resources, assuring involvement and support of the public, key cooperators and volunteers to provide access and enjoyment for forest users.

This is the 15th John R. McGuire Award given and the first time an Intermountain Regional employee has received the award. John R. McGuire served as Chief of the US Forest Service from 1972 until 1979. During his tenure, McGuire oversaw great changes within the Forest Service. He was most notably recognized as the Chief who prepared the agency for conservation work in the 21st Century. The John R. McGuire Award is given periodically to Forest Service employees whose work exemplifies the Forest Service's motto of "Caring for the Land and Serving People."

"It is an honor to be awarded with the John McGuire Award for the Forest Service and Region," Dickemore stated. "I could not have accomplished this work and continue to meet the Forest Service mission without the support of the employees on the Palisades Ranger District."

Dickemore has received several awards in the past for meeting the mission of the Forest Service. In 1993, Dickemore received the Governor's Award - Take Pride in Idaho, for his work with "Targhee Trails". In the same year Dickemore was awarded the President's Award for Take Pride in America again for his work on "Targhee Trails". Secretary of Interior, Bruce Babbitt, presented the Award for President Clinton. In 1994 Dickemore won the "Taking Wings" award for his work creating partnerships and constructing the Alpine Wetlands. In 1995 he received the "Hammer Award" from Vice-President Al Gore for "breaking boundaries" in his work putting together the Snake River Management Plan. In 1995 Dickemore received his second Governor's Award - Take Pride in Idaho for his work forming the Eastern Idaho Visitor's Information Center. In 2007 Dickemore was selected for the Wayne Foltz, Ranger of the Year Award. In 2008 he was part of a team that received the Regional Forester's award for Partnerships. In 2009, Bonneville County received the Regional Forester's award for "Outstanding Partner" based on their work with Palisades Ranger District and Dickemore.

In the last 15 years, Dickemore has successfully applied for and received over 7 million dollars in grant funding. The amount of funding he has generated on top of appropriated dollars has allowed him to rebuild most of the recreation program on the Palisades Ranger District. All of the campgrounds have been rebuilt to modern standards. Most of the Forest trailheads have been rebuilt to support higher use and larger vehicles. Dickemore has been able to accomplish 90%- of this work through grants and volunteer work.

In 2009, Dickemore took advantage of his working relationship with Bonneville, Lincoln (WY) and Madison Counties to direct $4.6 million dollars of stimulus funding toward rebuilding the Palisades Ranger District road system. The project includes the resurfacing of 50 miles of roads. The road system will provide access to a portion of the public driving passenger cars that haven't had access in 20 years.

Dickemore is very active with the Boy Scouts. He continues to provide and support 10-15 successful Eagle Scout projects per year. The projects have been selected to provide an opportunity for learning, leadership, public involvement and benefit to the National Forest.

Over many years, Dickemore has worked through the acquisition process to acquire and train a mule team. The mules provide support for the Palisades backcountry but also participate in several parades every year including Idaho Falls, ID and Jackson, WY.

Dickemore leads the Forest's Adopt and Trail Program. He has initiated a program where trail volunteers can maintain a trail on the Forest and receive a Michael Bargelski wildlife/outdoor print. This is a highly successful program with 1,150 miles of trail maintained every year.

Stan Tixier of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees noted, "Ron's work is outstanding in today's environment where every project and every program is a challenge to manage and complete. Through public involvement, coordination with other agencies, successful supplementation of a dwindling budget and pure determination, Ron sets the standard for "breaking-gridlock" and implementing the mission of the Forest Service."

The members of NAFSR add their congratulations to Ron for his outstanding successes and a "can do" attitude.

STATION FIRE

The Station Fire is not out. Congressman Adam Schiff with several of his Southern California colleagues has rescheduled the hearing, originally planned for August, for October 12 in the Los Angeles area. Several Forest Service officers and several retirees will be among the witnesses asked to take part in the Congressional hearing.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will open a comprehensive review of the fire starting in December, and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) will look into the issue of the forest recording telephone calls coming into its dispatch office without giving notice the calls were being recorded.

The Advisory Committee for the Advanced Fire and Natural Resource Management Training Programs at Schenck Civilian Conservation Center, Pisgah Forest, NC

That June day in 2006 is now just a distant memory. When I accepted Mickey Beland's invitation to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Advanced Forestry program at Schenck CCC, I had no idea what a roller coaster ride it would take me on during the next three and a half years. Mickey is the Forestry Instructor at Schenck, but I knew him from his days as a Staff Officer for the National Forests in North Carolina and more currently as a neighbor. I knew Schenck from fire fighting. As a crewmember, a squad boss and later as a crew boss, I worked beside and supervised Schenck students on fire assignments. I never had a bad assignment or a bad experience on any assignment with any individual. I learned an incredible amount from the students each time I went out with them.

Getting back to that day in June 2006, five of the eight invited Committee members participated in the meeting either in person or via telephone. Somehow, (I think it was when he was out of the room) Bill Carothers got elected as the Committee Chair. Discussion topics that day included a review of the existing Forestry program and the possibility of expanding the forestry program to include a fire management component that would operate as a Type II Initial Attack crew. The Committee decided to advise Schenck staff to move forward with the creation of a presentation for Forest Service Job Corps and Department of Labor personnel.

The original eight Committee members were a diverse group from within the Forest Service. We had Job Corps graduates, a retired Associate Deputy Chief, a District Ranger, biological technicians, two smoke jumpers and a Field Office representative. These members were Maria McDougall, Randy Burgess, Drag Sharp, Richard Spriggs, Bobby Sutton, Bill Miller, Jim Webb and Bill Carothers. There was little for the Committee to do until the presentations had been made to Job Corps and the Department of Labor, so the next Committee meeting was not held until May 2007. The Committee members saw the need for this program and the opportunities it presented for the students and the Forest Service. At this meeting, Committee Chair Bill Carothers asked each participating member why they agreed to serve. To a person, the response was "It's about the kids."

"It's about the kids" has become the Committee's mantra. None of the Committee members had ever served on a Job Corps Advisory Committee before and had very little direction from Job Corps staff on what we were expected to do. Other than some very general guidance for Industry Councils, the Committee was left to evolve on its own. Since the Forestry program is well established, the focus of the Committee has been getting the Advanced Fire Management Program up and running. Seeing numerous problems and needs for the startup of the Advanced Fire Management program, the Committee began taking actions with the blessings of the Schenck staff. Leveraging funds for and buying equipment, writing briefing papers, outreach notices and position descriptions, serving as detailed overhead for the crew, talking up the program with any one who would listen, making presentations and writing articles for distribution are a few examples of actions taken by the Committee. Sometimes, the Committee has gotten into the nitty-gritty of personnel and Center management to advance the Fire Management program. The Committee was expanded to twelve members after the May 2007 meeting to include Rick Kiel, Steve Lenzo, Ronnie Carnes, Doug Francis and Jaime Hernandez, who replaced Maria McDougall.

At times, it has been difficult to meet the needs of the Forest Service, Job Corps and Department of Labor. Because of these and other problems and needs in the startup phase, the Committee has met almost each month since May 2007. At each meeting, previous Committee action assignments are reviewed and new actions needed are identified. Progress is being made in resolving many of the lingering issues.

Knowledge of and support for the Advanced Fire Management program has grown from the local area to multiple states and Regions. The best selling point for the Advanced Fire Management program is the performance of the Davidson River Type II IA crew that is the result of implementing the program. The crew has completed more than one hundred all hazard, prescribed and wildland fire assignments in the past two years and received excellent performance evaluations on each assignment. Seventeen of the nineteen graduates from the program have been placed in Forest Service primary fire positions and continue to excel, and the remaining two graduates have been placed with a contract fire organization.

The Advisory Committee continues to provide advice, support and action as the Advanced Fire and Natural Resource Management programs evolve. We look for every opportunity to assist the Schenck staff and students because "It's all about the kids."

Contributed by William A. Carothers, Chair, Advanced Fire Management and Forestry-Natural Resources Management Training Programs and current Field Office Representative, Forest Health Protection, Region 8.

Editors note: A recently released GAO report expressed concern about the Forest Service's ability to meet its need for fire leaders in the future. The program described by Bill Carothers may well be one part of the answer.

Forest Service 'Hotshot' crew helps clear downed trees, limbs from NYC parks

WASHINGTON, DC, September 27, 2010 - Members of an elite U.S. Forest Service wildland fire crew are providing assistance to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation following the devastating wind storm that hit the city September 16.

The Cherokee Interagency Hotshot Crew arrived in New York Sept.26. The 20-person crew is from Wautauga Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest in Unicoi, Tenn. The wildland firefighters are removing fallen trees and limbs from trails and public areas in the 235-acre Kissena Park in Queens, and the 585-acre Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Nationally, weather has diminished wildfire risks, enabling the Cherokee Hotshots to apply their skills in this urban forest setting.

"We are pleased to provide this service to the NYC Parks Department and the people of New York," said Tom Tidwell, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. "This is an opportunity for the Forest Service to respond across jurisdictions and boundaries to meet a pressing need for restoration in a place where our
wildland firefighters do not often get to work."

The Forest Service and the Fire Department of New York have an established, ongoing relationship for firefighter training and response to fires, and serve together on interagency incident management teams.
The Cherokee crew is being housed at New York City's facility at Fort Totten in Queens.

As we get ready to hit the send button another opportunity to work with the FS has arrived. The Forest Service has sent an email for scoping comments to be used for an EIS covered the use of fire retardants to comply with an order from the Federal District Court in Missoula. NAFSR will reply.

The lookout is published by the National Association of Forest Service Retirees. John Marker, Editor, jf37m@aol.com, 541-352-6154, 6681 Hwy 35, Mt. Hood, OR 97041