October 2007

Understanding the System: - The next few newsletters will walk readers through each component of the FPA system flow, beginning with FPU developed investment alternatives. More function and complexity exist within each box than is included in this overview series.

FPA System Flow Diagram

Current Topics:

FPU Investment Alternatives
New FPA Website Features
Interagency Science Team
FPU Prototype Progress
GAO Engagement
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 Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) is a cooperative interagency organization dedicated to achieving consistent implementation of the goals, actions, and policies in the National Fire Plan and the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. The Council provides leadership and oversight to ensure policy coordination, accountability, and effective implementation of the National Fire Plan and the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy.


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.


FPU Developed Investment Alternatives - Fire Planning Units (FPUs) will use their land and fire management plans, and historic data, (fire occurrence and weather) to develop a series of investment alternatives to analyze for effectiveness and cost using the FPA system. Investment alternatives describe varying strategies for achieving land management goals in the FPU. For interagency FPUs, these investment alternatives will be developed in collaboration with all the FPU partners. Effectiveness is modeled in terms of the impact the alternative would have on fire behavior within the FPU.

Developed by the FPU planners, the investment alternatives are combinations of three options:

  1. Initial response options are organizations of personnel on engines, crews, helicopters, etc. - the fire resources that produce fireline that are funded by the FPU’s budget. These resources are modeled to show how they affect initial response success.
  2. Prevention options describe prevention activities that include prevention education, engineering and enforcement. These activities affect the number of person-caused fires.
  3. Fuels treatment options describe on-the-ground projects by the total number of acres treated, treatment cost, the cost of the fuels program supporting those treatments, and the changes in fuels conditions resulting from the treatment. Fuels treatment options are used by the model to show how they may affect the success of initial response and large fire suppression.

The FPU investment alternatives are extremely important to the FPA process because they are modeled for how well they meet the performance measures and for their associated costs. The modeled performance measures and costs for each alternative can be evaluated nationally and locally to select the investment alternatives that best meet land management and national guidance.

New FPA Web site Features:

  • The Briefing Materials page is being populated with background information that can be used to develop briefing materials for line officers and others interested in the FPA project and system development.
  • MAT Desk Guide - This guide was developed for the Management Advisory Team. The contents generally include FPA supporting documents, project chronology, team organization, and descriptions of the system components.


 Interagency Science Team (IST) Met in Boise, October 23 through October 26 to be updated on the FPA system development, and to assist the Project in refining the calculation of performance measures that the FPUs will use to evaluate their investment alternatives. The IST reaffirmed the importance of agencies' land and fire management plans as each FPU designs and analyzes its investment alternatives. During the meeting, Krista Gebert, economist at the USDA Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station, reviewed the process used for the recently completed the Department of the Interior's (DOI)stratified cost index study. The results suggest that fire size, flame length, and nearness to the wildland urban interface are key factors for estimating probable suppression costs for both Forest Service and DOI.

FPU Prototypes working hard developing and testing FPA -
The seven Fire Planning Units selected to prototype system design and application continue to apply their expertise and collaborative skills to the FPA system development. Most are conducting sensitivity testing on arrival times in the Initial Response Simulator (IRS) Personal Computer (PC), validating fire resource behavior/requirements, and comparing available LANDFIRE data and local data in the IRS and large fire runs.

GAO Engagement - The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct an audit on the FPA project. Questions to be answered include:

What's Next?

  • November 19-20 - Meeting with LANDFIRE in Boise, Idaho
  • November 28-29 - FPU prototype workshop in Boise, Idaho
  • In November, Jaymee Fojtik, The DOI Business Lead will be traveling to Washington D.C. to meet and brief bureau and departmental managers.
  • Project personnel are attending multiple national Fire Leadership Team meetings.