March 2007
Bonnie Wood has accepted the USDA Forest Service's Business Lead position for the Fire Program Analysis (FPA) group in Boise.
Bonnie comes to FPA with over 32 years of experience in many different functional areas allowing her to coordinate well with the Department of the Interior Business Lead and the FPA project manager.
Most recently, Bonnie served in the Regional and State Office in Portland as the National Fire Plan Executive Director with oversight duties for the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. During her service in Portland, Bonnie was the Executive Director for the Pacific Northwest Wildland Fire Coordinating Group and she has spent many years earning her current qualifications as an Assistant Area Commander for Logistics.
She has worked in recreation, cultural resources, law enforcement and served as a Ranger on the Siskyou NF, and Deputy Forest Supervisor and Forest Supervisor on the Malheur NF.
Bonnie's experience will help provide a link to, and coordination with, field Line Officers. Bonnie will start her new job in Boise early in April. Welcome Bonnie!
|
Current Topics:
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 the fire planning unit that inform 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.
|
 DOI Business Lead:
Jaymee Fojtik, acting Department of the Interior Business Lead will be finishing her month long detail the end of March. Much thanks goes to Jaymee for her insight in helping the FPA team prepare for the prototype delivery. Note: The Department of the Interior Business Lead Position will be advertised soon.
Prototype Workshop: The seven Fire Planning Units (FPU) participating in the FPA prototype, and the Geographic Area Leads gathered with the FPA Team in Tucson January 17 and 18 to kick off the prototype phase of the project. Prototype partners were briefed on the status conceptual design of the prototype, and planned how they will work together to test and evaluate the modules to meet the June 30, 2007 delivery date. The workshop included six requirements sessions on key design elements of the prototype
The FPA Team and Participating Fire Planning Units Focus on "Proof of Concept":
Participating FPUs have been aggressively working with the FPA team to test individual model components and functions.
The FPUs have been given scenarios to work through which test specific code, functions, or usability. Their results, including suggestions and critiques are shared with the FPA team who then evaluate the outcomes to validate the model. By the end of March, testers will also begin evaluating elements of the user interface navigation tools.
Their Pain is Your Gain:
The goal of the FPA proof-of-concept prototype is twofold: 1) to explore the simulation and decision support design concepts, and 2) to minimize impact on the field with tests and data runs till the design is solid.
This approach was adopted by FPA in response to the advice that came out of the April 2006 After Action Review (AAR), So, please say thanks to the FPUs who are participating as prototype partners -- and remember their willingness to bear the brunt of prototyping is so the rest of the FPU community doesn't have to!
The After Action Review Report (AAR) has been updated to reflect the recommendation actions given by the Geographic Areas in April 2006. The updated AAR describes the resolutions in response to field recommendations and provides guidance to the future development of FPA.
(The AAR was held for FPA team members and Geographic areas to meet and discuss the FPA process and provide recommendations for improvements.)
Dusting off the TechNews - Once again the FPA team is using the TechNews newsletter to get pertinent technical information to system field users quickly. The emphasis has changed from critical system updates to ensuring information flow.
Until the FPA "proof of concept" prototype is approved, the information and
requests in the TechNews are intended to help FPUs prepare for implementation.
The FPA website has been updated. The major change has been the addition of an archive section on the main webpage. Old documents have been moved out of the active information website and archived. The documents filed under the archive are out of date and are available only as reference material
- To access the archive, visit the FPA web page at: http://www.fpa.nifc.gov
- Go to the “Library” button located on the left menu bar.
- The archive button can be found at the bottom of the second level menu
What's Next?
- End of March 2007 - WFLC Prototype Update
- May 2007 - Prototype Workshop
- June 2007 - Brief National Fire & Aviation Executive Board
- June 30 "Proof of Concept" Prototype Delivery
|
