July 2008

FPA's Phased Release Promote a Stable System. Recapping an important topic in last month's newsletter, the FPA system will be released in two phases to promote a stable and tested system. The first phase was released on June 30, 2008 for testing by prototype and early-adopter Fire Planning Units (FPUs). The second release will be in late August, again to be tested by our testing FPUs before being available nationwide.

Current Topics:

Training
Early-adopter Progress
 Interagency Science Team   
What's Next?

For more information visit http://fpa.nifc.gov
or call Venetia Gempler
208-947-3786

Fire Program Analysis

Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system is a common interagency decision support tool for wildland fire planning and budgeting.
This tool will enable wildland fire managers in the five federal land management agencies to plan jointly.

The FPA System:
 will be designed to encourage state, local, and tribal agency participation.
incorporates geospatial data which provide the means to map levels of wildland fire risk on lands across the country.
 generates outcomes from fire planning units that
provide information to the national budget planning process.
 will provide a way for land managers to compare
trade-offs between wildland fire program components.
 is a tool to ensure wildland fire management actions help meet performance measures outlined in the 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy.

Learning to Use FPA. FPA's online training will be delivered through a series of self-paced learning modules over the next year. The first six modules will cover essential FPU data entry tasks to use for this year's analysis.

  • The first four self-paced modules, due September 30, cover data entry, defining resources and dispatch logic, understanding how FPA uses dispatch delays, and output reports from running the models.
  • The next two modules deal with how to assign Fire Workload Area attributes and define dispatch locations.

Twelve modules will come out in 2009 that will help users with next year's analysis.

FPA's online training is only one way FPU members can learn to use the application. The user guide and application Help feature will provide information to meet many users' needs.

Following the Progress of Early-adopters. The twenty “early-adopter” Fire Planning Units are testing and evaluating the first release of the FPA system. They are validating the stability of the user interface and its readiness for all FPUs. The FPA Team holds weekly conference calls with the early-adopters to discuss and demonstrate how to complete user interface screens. To navigate the FPA system, early-adopters are using a pre-release version of the user guide – field testing it to benefit future users.

In addition, early-adopters are tracking the time required to enter data and run analyses to help other FPUs plan their workload when they begin using FPA in September.

Interagency Science Team. A subgroup of FPA's Interagency Science Team, made up of scientists from the US Forest Service, the Department of the Interior, and academia, met in Boise this month to continue evaluating the sensitivity of the Initial Response Simulator and the Large Fire Module. Their conclusions help the Project develop technical guidance for the FPUs, fine tune the modules, and develop recommendations to the EOG.

What's Next?

  • August 28 , 2008 FPA Executive Oversight Group meeting
  • Early September FPA's Interagency Science Team meets with FPA Team
  • Mid- to late-September 2008 FPA system open to all FPUs.