Photo of the Schenck Job Corps Center in North Carolina September 26, 2018 operated by the Forest Service, taken during a visit by Forest Service Chief Christiansen (third from the left). The center was ranked as the number one Job Corps Center out of 123 nationwide during the program year that ended June 30, 2018.
The amendment introduced by Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio would prohibit the government from spending any funds to “alter or terminate the Interagency Agreement between the United States Department of Labor and the United States Department of Agriculture governing the funding, establishment, and operation of Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers”. It would also prohibit funds being used to close any of the 25 Job Corps centers that are now operated by the Forest Service.
Transferring the Centers to the Department of Labor could result in the loss of over 1,000 jobs within the Forest Service.
The centers currently employ more than 1,100 people, operate in 17 national forests and grasslands across 16 states, and provide training to over 3,000 youth and young adults according to Congressman DeFazio.
Information from the U.S. Forest Service said 1,200 CCC students provided the equivalent of 450,000 hours of wildfire support during the height of the 2017 fire season.
If you would like to get into the weeds about how this amendment was introduced and debated on the floor of the House, you can read the transcript published in the Congressional Record, beginning on page H4541.
Representatives who spoke in favor of the bill during the debate included Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Sanford Bishop of Georgia, Dan Newhouse of Washington, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington.
The lone representative speaking against the measure was Virginia Foxx of North Carolina. Interestingly, the Schenck Job Corps Center in her state was ranked as the number one Job Corps Center out of 123 nationwide during the program year that ended June 30, 2018.
A letter from the National Association of Home Builders backing the amendment was included in the official record. Here is an excerpt:
The recent termination of the Department of Agriculture’s training partnership with Job Corps and subsequent announcement by the Department of Labor (DOL) of nine center closures is deeply concerning to NAHB and its workforce development arm, the Home Builders Institute (HBI), which has trained and placed thousands of students for careers in residential construction through its 45-year partnership with Job Corps. HBI Job Corps programs are offered at 65 centers across the country, and have equipped at-risk youth with the skills and experience they need for successful careers through pre-apprenticeship training, job placement services, mentoring, certification programs, textbooks and curricula.
DOL’s planned Job Corps center closures stand to impact more than 43 construction training programs, six of which are operated by HBI at three of the affected locations. Many of these centers serve rural and dislocated communities and have enrollment numbers exceeding national and regional averages. However, the Department of Labor has not disclosed any performance metrics or data to support its closure determinations and it has provided little information on how it will continue to serve the thousands of at-risk youth who will be displaced from their local centers. Further, DOL has not informed contracted training partners like HBI whether their successfully operating programs–and their administering staff–will be relocated or simply terminated along with the centers they have served.
The amendment passed with a voice vote, but Chip Roy of Texas objected and forced a recorded vote — which also passed, 313-109. All Democrats voted in favor; Republicans voted 81 for and 109 against.
The legislation the measure is attached to is a major bill, the “Fiscal Year 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Legislative Branch, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act”, H.R. 2740.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Kelly. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
Very pointed questions were asked about the Forest Service adopting technology to track locations of firefighters and fires
When the Senate Energy Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing began on June 13, 2019 to “Examine the Outlook for Wildland Fire and Management Programs for 2019” seven Senators were present. They came and went throughout the one hour and 54-minute hearing, with a total of 11 making statements or asking questions.
In what has become an annual routine in recent years, today the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a “Hearing to Examine the Outlook for Wildland Fire and Management Programs for 2019”.
The contingent from the land management agencies providing testimony were:
Shawna Legarza, Director, Fire Aviation and Management, Forest Service
Jeff Rupert, Office of Wildland Fire, Department of the Interior
Wade Crowfoot, Secretary, California Natural Resources Agency
Chris Maisch, Alaska State Forester & National Association of State Foresters
The four-person panel providing testimony.
One topic that came up was the Trump Administration’s plans to transfer the management of 25 Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers from the U.S. Forest Service to the Department of Labor (DOL) and permanently close 9 of those 25 centers. Since then, the decision to close one of the Centers in Montana was reversed. Now we have the back story on how that one Center was taken off the chopping block.
Senator Steve Daines of Montana discussed the transfer and closing of Job Corps Centers.
During today’s hearing Senator Steve Daines of Montana said it he called President Trump and convinced him to keep the Anaconda Center in his state open. The Senator said after talking with the President he confirmed it with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.
Mr. Rupert said the DOI “plans to deploy nearly 4,500 firefighting personnel, 500 tribal firefighters, 151 smokejumpers, 17 interagency hotshot crews and 4 Tribal hotshot crews.”
Mrs. Legarza did not specify how many firefighting resources the Forest Service will have this year, but we asked agency Spokesperson Debra Schweizer who told us they will have “more than 10,000 firefighters and 900 engines” plus 324 smokejumpers and 87 hotshot crews. The FS has exclusive use contracts with 18 large air tankers and one single engine air tanker (SEAT). On call when needed contracts at substantially higher hourly and daily rates, they can access, if available:
14 large air tankers
4 scooping CL-415 air tankers
8 military C-130 aircraft outfitted with temporary Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS)
An unknown number of old CV580 air tankers from Canada
9 scoopers from Canada
The Forest Service also has on exclusive use contracts this year, 20 air tactical supervision fixed-wing aircraft, 6 smokejumper aircraft, and 15 lead/aerial supervision module aircraft. Plus, 6 agency-owned smokejumper aircraft, 1 air tactical supervision fixed-wing aircraft, and two infrared fixed-wing aircraft.
For a couple of years the Energy and Natural Resources Committee has been pushing the federal land management agencies to work toward what I call the Holy Grail of Wildland Firefighter Safety, knowing in real time the locations of firefighters and the fire. Fourteen months after it was first introduced, the Wildfire Management Technology Advancement Act became law after it was included in an omnibus bill, the Natural Resources Management Act. The Senate passed it with a vote of 92 to 8, and the House followed suit, 363 to 62. On March 12, 2019 it was signed by the President.
Now that the legislation has become Public Law 116-9 the federal land management agencies are directed to adopt or build on a number of new technologies that can enhance the safety of firefighters and aid in the suppression of wildfires. Some of the requirements have deadlines:
Establish a research, development, and testing program, or expand an applicable existing program, to assess unmanned aircraft system technologies, including optionally piloted aircraft, across the full range of wildland fire management operations. (180 days, due by September 8, 2019)
Develop consistent protocols and plans for the use on wildland fires of unmanned aircraft system technologies, including for the development of real-time maps of the location of wildland fires. (within 180 days, March 12, 2020)
Develop and operate a tracking system to remotely locate the positions of fire resources, including, at a minimum, any fire resources assigned to Federal Type 1 wildland fire incident management teams. (within 2 years, March 12, 2021) According to a press release by Senator Maria Cantwell, by the 2021 fire season, all firefighting crews – regardless of whether they are federal, state, or local – working on large wildfires will be equipped with GPS locators.
Senator Maria Cantwell asked when the Forest Service would implement location tracking technology.
During today’s hearing, Senator Maria Cantwell asked Shawna Legarza, Fire Director for the U.S. Forest Service, “What are you doing to implement the tools that we gave you?
Senator Cantwell: We are seeing other people implementing these GPS systems as it relates to resources and fire engines, and moving forward I know that BLM has now agreed to doing this immediately. What can we do to get the Forest Service to immediately implement that GPS system so we know the location of resources and assets and hopefully onto our firefighters as well so we can protect them this season.
Mrs. Legarza: Thank you Senator. So what we are doing in the Forest Service, actually interagency at the National Interagency Fire Center in just a couple of weeks we are having a three-day industry technology day to find out what is out there, and then together we’re gonna figure out what do we need interagency, not just the Forest Service, but with the BLM and the states, and then put together a request for information and RFP for proposal to find out how much that costs so that we can all talk together and be integrated.
Senator Cantwell: …With the fire season upon us, the fact that the BLM has implemented this right away, why can’t we get the Forest Service to do the same?
Mrs. Legarza: We’re putting (inaudible) together to do that.
Senator Cantwell: …I get that there are a lot of new tools. I guess what we are saying, pick the most urgent one that you can implement today. Do not study this for an entire year.
Shawna Legarza, Fire and Aviation Director, Forest Service
In 2014 when Mrs. Lagarza was the USFS Fire Director for the agency’s Region 5 (California), she was interviewed by CBS News and talked in positive terms about tracking the locations of firefighters and the fire. Unfortunately the video is no longer available.
Our Take:
The fact that the Forest Service needs a three-day meeting “to find out what is out there”, makes it appears that the agency collectively knows practically nothing about these technologies and is basically starting from scratch in order to appear to be trying to meet the mandate in the recently passed law.
At least four to five years ago one of the National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) Incident Commanders was tasked with addressing the issue of tracking the locations of fires and firefighters.
On January 31, 2017 I asked Forest Service Spokesperson Jennifer Jones about the status of the effort to adopt these technologies. I was not getting very detailed answers, so finally I asked, “Is this a low priority effort that has one person working on it as a collateral duty when he or she has time in the winter, or is it an all-out effort that is full time for 5 people?”
She responded: “This was proposed and accepted as a formal U.S. Forest Service Technology Development Program project. It has been funded for the last two years and we expect that it will continue to be funded until it is completed. The project is being led by a U.S. Forest Service Technology and Development Program staff member with the participation of additional subject matter experts as needed.”
So, to schedule a meeting to “find out what’s out there”, sounds like little to nothing has been accomplished during the last four years in the funded “formal U.S. Forest Service Technology Development Program project”.
Taxpayer funds have supposedly been spent for at least four years on adopting this location technology, but results of their study are hard to identify.
Nicole Hawkins, the wildlife biologist at Fort Jackson’s Directorate of Public Works Environmental Department, sets up an artificial cavity box 20 feet up in a tree at Fort Jackson Nov. 6, 2015 in preparation for a soon-to-be arriving endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. (U.S. Army photo by Jennifer Stride/Released)
Below is an excerpt from an article published June 11 at The State:
…Three federal agencies investigating her death aren’t saying much about the cause, but information her family has received from the Army and others knowledgeable about the death suggests some kind of equipment malfunction led to the fatality that stunned friends from Alabama to Virginia, family members say.
Chadwick-Hawkins’ son, Dakota Bryant of Myrtle Beach, said fuel was found on her upper body and on equipment she was using that day. A charred all-terrain vehicle sat near her body and a gas cap was missing from a fuel tank, family members said. The Alabama native had been in contact with base officials by radio, just before she died, they said.
“I don’t know definitely that it was an equipment malfunction, but it is likely based on the fact that there was fuel found on her gear,’’ the 24-year-old Bryant said, noting that fuel on her gear “was not normal.’’
She had worked as a civilian at the base since 2007, with much of her time spent in helping to bring back an endangered species, the red-cockaded woodpecker. One of the techniques used to improve the bird’s habitat was the use of prescribed fire.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Tom. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
The U. S. Forest Service is planning to streamline the environmental reviews of certain prescribed fire and forest management projects, including logging.
Below is an excerpt from a June 12 article at NPR.org.
Federal land managers on Wednesday proposed sweeping rule changes to a landmark environmental law that would allow them to fast-track certain forest management projects, including logging and prescribed burning.
The U.S. Forest Service, under Chief Vicki Christiansen, is proposing revisions to its National Environmental Policy Act regulations that could limit environmental review and public input on projects ranging from forest health and wildfire mitigation to infrastructure upgrades to commercial logging on federal land.
Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen testified about the White House’s proposed budget for FY2020 on May 15, 2019.
“We do more analysis than we need, we take more time than we need and we slow down important work to protect communities,” Christiansen told NPR.
The proposed rule changes include an expansion of “categorical exclusions.” These are often billed as tools that give land managers the discretion to bypass full-blown environmental studies in places where they can demonstrate there would be no severe impacts or degradation to the land.
John Gale, with the conservation group Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, says that if applied carefully and narrowly to certain projects, these exclusions could help lower the fire risk. But he’s skeptical because the administration recently rolled back protections for clean water and wildlife…
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Rick. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
Considered but discarded the option of high-visibility fabric for entire shirt
Retroreflective striping has been added to the 2011 FS spec shirt design. Depending on stocking levels, this new revision of shirts will arrive in orders within a year or two.
The National Wildfire Coordinating Group has approved a modification to the wildland firefighter shirt to add retroreflective striping on the arms and pocket flaps. In the article below written by Tony Petrilli, the U.S. Forest Service’s National Technology and Development (T&D) Program Project Leader for firefighter clothing, he explains that it will become available through the regular fire equipment system in one to two years. He also describes how they decided on the striping, rather than high visibility cloth for the entire shirt.
The article was published June 12, 2019 at the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center website.
High Visibility — More to the Story . . .
JUNE 12, 2019 / WILDFIRELESSONS By Tony Petrilli
As the U.S. Forest Service’s National Technology and Development Program (T&D) Project Leader for firefighter clothing, I would like to address some of the history and decision-making criteria concerning Forest Service “spec” garments.
A recent Blog Post on this LLC site written by Charlie Palmer [https://wildfirelessons.wordpress.com/2019/04/16/high-vis/] referred to a proposal that he sent to us at the National Technology and Development Program four years ago requesting us to evaluate high visibility (HV) flame resistant (FR) garments. While this project proposal was rejected, most importantly, the concept was not. (Another Key Point: Project proposals to T&D are vetted through an interagency fire steering committee, not necessarily T&D itself.)
Many years ago, I asked FR fabric manufacturers here in the United States about HV. A couple years after that, one of the manufacturers had developed a new HV fabric.
Current Shirt
During the T&D firefighter shirt redesign project that resulted in the current (M2011) FS spec design, high visibility yellow color fabric was one of the many fabrics considered and was wear tested by firefighters in the field. Some resultant facts and findings:
Flame resistant meta-aramid (Nomex IIIA) fabric does not bond well with high visibility colored dyes to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) visibility standards.
Flame resistant fabric made with modacrylic fibers can be dyed with HV colors.
In order to meet the minimum radiant protective performance (RPP) requirements, modacrylic fabric needs to be heavier and thicker than current meta-aramid (Nomex IIIA) fabric.
Wear test shirts made from HV modacrylic blend fabric received low ratings from firefighters in terms of heat stress and comfort due to lower air permeability and heavier weight of the fabric.
Wear testers found that the high visibility dyes washed out with relatively few washings and leftover fire grime in the fabric left it rather dull and faded.
It seems most everything is a tradeoff in firefighter clothing. Balances therefore need to be scrutinized and discussed. Example: Garment/fabric radiant heat protection (from the fire) is very much inversely proportional to heat loss that is human generated. HV also comes with a tradeoff cost.
Decision
Firefighters run the risk of heat stress many days during a fire season. It was therefore decided that it was not worth increasing that risk (as slight as that may be) by wearing heavier/less breathable high visibility clothing. The traits of the normal yellow meta-aramid blend shirt was determined as the appropriate balance of all fabric qualities.
Any New Developments? Retroreflective Striping
Just last month, the NWCG Equipment Technology Committee agreed to a slight modification to the 2011 FS spec shirt design. The NWCG Risk Management Committee has also been briefed on this new revision. The shirt style has been wear-tested with firefighters in the field.
The biggest change is the addition of segmented *retroreflective striping. It is limited to placement on the pocket flaps and the bottom edge of the elbow patches due to the small possibility of stored energy burns and the lack of air permeability. Placing a limited amount of segmented striping will decrease the possibility of unintended outcomes yet is a practical step toward being more visible.
Depending on stocking levels, the new revision of shirts will arrive in orders within a year or two.
In a few years, when the Product Review Life Cycle brings back the shirt project, high visibility fabric and other new technology with potential benefits will once again be considered. This year we are starting a project review for firefighter pants. Be looking for a product questionnaire coming out soon!
Any agency or department can perform their own Risk Assessment and Trade-Off Analysis. If the need for excellent high visibility qualities (instead of the very good qualities of a clean yellow shirt) outweigh the need for excellent heat loss and air permeability, investigate private vendors that sell HV garments. For buyer protection, make sure the garment label confirms certification to NFPA 1977.
Until New Shirts with Reflective Striping Arrive, What Can We Do to Optimize Firefighter Visibility with the Current Clothing?
Many firefighters carry signal mirrors that coincidentally don’t work well in smoky and cloudy conditions or in the dark. Consider replacing or supplementing that signal mirror with a small (size of a marker) strobe flashlight. Some folks have reported that these flashlights are very effective. (See this “New Signaling Tools” RLS.)
Trade in dirty clothing at incident Supply Units or come to a fire with a couple clean sets in your red bag.
Follow The Red Book Chapter 7 direction for permanently stained or old, faded shirts—replace them.
Leave reflective striping intact on helmets and fireline packs.
Besides Visibility is Dirty PPE an Issue?
Besides the lack of visibility qualities, soiled garments have been shown to offer less radiant heat protection, be flammable (if gas and oil soiled), less breathable, and may contain toxins that are harmful to the wearer. Anecdotally, I have noticed less and less super-dirty firefighters while on assignments lately. Even so, firefighters need to be educated on this issue and supervisors need to take measures to ensure relatively clean garments are worn.
Currently, T&D is working with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to test real-world soiled firefighter clothing for such potential hazards, then determine the risk as well as the appropriate cleaning practices.
A couple years ago… A Division Supervisor (me) on right in a clean yellow shirt next to a (former dirt-bag) hotshot (my son). As you can see, the soiled shirt has much less visibility quality than a clean one.
Many firefighters don’t want to be visible. They feel clean clothes and reflective striping somehow makes them look uncool. They subscribe to LCES—“Look Cool Every Second”. (Sorry, Paul G.) If someone gives you grief for wearing a clean or new looking shirt, tell them you wore out your old one. By the way, my son did not give me grief for being clean, he knows better than that. He did, however, say that I look good!
Comments or questions? Feel free to contact me at anthony.petrilli@usda.gov or 406-329-3965.
*Note from Bill: According to Reflectivetapeinfo, “The word “retro” is the key to understanding the difference between a reflective surface like a mirror, and a retro reflective surface like a bike or automobile reflector. Retro means to go back or backward. In the reflective tape industry it means to return light back where it came from and no where else.”
It is interesting on today’s fire danger rating map for the United States and Canada how the interpreted information changes at the US/Canada border. In couple of spots in Montana it is Low, then step across the border and it is Extreme.
