Fire Program Analysis Title
June/July 2009

Ramping up to review FPA Phase 2 (October 2006 – May 2009)  The purpose of the Review is to learn from the development and implementation of the Phase 2 system application, to focus on organizational learning and continuous organizational improvement.

The Review will be multi-faceted; with face-to-face review workshops and an online survey to canvas the project’s stakeholders at each level of the participating organizations - from the field to the national office. The Objective is to strategically review the FPA Phase 2 development and implementation, as well as the communication methods employed.

The review will identify:

  • Practices used in FPA Phase 2 that were effective and should be used for future phases of this and similar projects,
  • Practices that we can improve on
  • Suggested methods of improvement

The review will occur between July 27th and October 30th 2009 using a three-step process including:

  1. a face-to-face review workshop with FPA Team members
  2. an online survey available to all stakeholders, and
  3. a face-to-face review workshop with a sample of FPA stakeholders. 

Logistically, we cannot involve all our stakeholders in face-to-face discussions, so we are glad that we are able to provide the survey to gather input from those unable to attend the review workshops. Our consultant will provide an executive summary of outcomes and actions as the final product of this effort.

We are working with Guidance Group, to design and facilitate the Review process. Guidance Group is a consulting firm specializing in human and organizational assistance to fire service organizations. They employ a practical, professional, and experienced approach to fire service needs.

Current Topics:

Reviewing FPA
Gold bullet Preparing for Year 2
content bullet FPU Sound Off!
content bullet National FPU Shapefile
graphic box LiveMeetings Resume
Web Updates
Table of content, gold bullet FPA ListServ
graphic box What's Next?

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:
 is designed to encourage tribal, state, and local agency participation.
incorporates geospatial data which provide the means to map effects of wildland fire 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.

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

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FPA System Reference

Links:FPA system helpdesk at fire_help@fs.fed.us or at: 1-800-253-5559.

Review the FPA White Papers. These papers describe how the model uses different resources, fuel treatments, or data.

FPA User Guide is available on the FPA web site. It walks the user through the system step by step.

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bullet Preparing for Year 2 

  • Instructions are being developed to help the FPUs prepare their data and their analyses for the transfer from year 1 to year 2. The FPA system will be shutting down between July 26 and August 4, 2009 that allows the contractor to move FPU data and their chosen analyses.
  • The “Getting Started” guide on the FPA website is also being updated to reflect the analysis steps from year 2.
  • A “Tips and Tricks” document, built from lessons learned, is being compiled to assist FPUs through the year 2 analysis and submission.


bullet Fire Planning Unit's Sound Off! A number of issues have been forwarded to the FPA team regarding the first year of FPA implementation. The FPA project wanted to address them prior to the formal FPA system review because they are critical to the year 2 analyses. Click, to read FPA Responses to Year 1 Field Issues and Concerns or visit www.fpa.nifc.gov and look under the "Spotlight" header.


bullet National FPU Shapefile (polygon) updated 6/9/2009. Four FPUs in the Southeastern Geographic Area have combined into two decreasing the number of FPUs from 139 to 137. Midlands and Low Country in South Carolina and Central and South Appalachian combined.


bullet LiveMeetings Resume July 22, 2009. The LiveMeetings are designed to help fire planners understand the improvements made to FPA for the second year, and to aid them in preparing to build their investment options for FY2012. Following finalization, a complete schedule and topic lists will be posted to the web soon! In the short-term, here are the following topics and dates

  • July 22 - Preparing for system shutdown
  • July 29 - Preparing for restarting the FPA system
  • August 5 - Associating Fire Workload Area (FWA) information
  • August 12 - Data input (resources & dispatch locations)
  • August 19 - Data input (FWA Part 1)
  • August 26 - Data input (FWA Part 2)


bullet FPA Web Updates:


bullet FPA ListServ: Is a subscription service that alerts participants to new FPA products, information, or announcements. The ListServ™ delivers information directly to those interested in following the development and implementation of FPA. To subscribe or unsubscribe visit: http://www.fpa.nifc.gov/Listserv/Listserv.html


bullet What's Next?

  • July 26, 2009 - The last day FPUs can do "what if" analysis
  • July 27 - August 3, 2009 - FPA system unavailable for analysis runs while  data are archived from year one and updates loaded for year two analysis
  • August 4, 2009 - FPA system available to start year two analysis