To promote the safe, legal, and responsible use of
prescribed fire as a natural resource management tool.
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| MEETING NOTES
June 14, 2007 Present: Chris Rundstrom TNC, Bill Vodehnal NGPC, Milt
Moravik CPNRD, John Ortman TNC, David
Carr CPNRD, Roger Chelsey NGLC, Doug Whisenhunt NRCS, Mark Fenny NGPC, Tim
Tunnell TNC Steering Committee
Report Outreach Committee:
John O. & Dana –display for VFD Fire School—Friday & Saturday.
Everyone agreed time well spent John O. media guide for RX Burn still in progress.
Control burn vs. RX burn—differences-acres destroyed??? February—GIS training for state fire marshal, NGPC, NRCS
& S-131 Venue in conjunction w/ state fire school National Coalition of Fire Councils--Rundstrom-Kearney fire dept. will be doing 130/190 in October Doug- Red card certification program---should Council red
card certify people? Dave has gotten red cards for people through the State fire
marshal. Red card- only to FF+2 status NEW
BUSINESS -Booth at Grazing Conference piggy tail with PBTF booth—talk to Dana. Fire Breakout section—Dana, Rich Bringlson & Tim will be speaking—could use opportunity to talk about RX Fire Council Risk management handout—Rich Bringleson -part of LCRA CIG grant Bill Carhart-article “ How to build cost effective skid sprayers for RX burning for $1050.00” Next meeting for Council & Steering Committee Oct.
16-19th (Chris H, Dave , Dana, Bill V) Meeting adjourned at
2:55 pm February
8, 2007 The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm Outreach Committee Report: Discussion centered around the possibility of setting up a booth at the State Fire School in May, and getting a 15 minute presentation at the state fire convention in October. Joe volunteered to gather some contact information and get
it to Dave who will get it to the members of the outreach committee who are
interested in the project. Dave
mentioned that he could help with a power point or display for the booth.
Bill mentioned that maybe Toby Tobiasson should be contacted to see if he
wants to help with any planned presentation at the state fire convention.
Rich volunteered to help with this type of outreach. New members for the Council: Training Committee Report: RC&D, NRCS, LLNRD Main speaker: Chuck Butterfield (Chadron State) NRCS Advanced Burn School
March 26-30 New Business: Dave Carr and Tim Tunnell will be attending the National Fire Learning Network meeting in Tucson, AZ in early March. The focus of the meeting will be “Funding for Implementation.” CPNRD is planning to submit a draft resolution at the NARD Conference that could then be sent to the legislature regarding support for prescribed burning as a management tool. Meeting in Lincoln in regards to Invasive Vegetation with State tech subcommittee, Milt Moravek will attend with the goals of the Council in mind. A motion was submitted by John Ortmann to add a word to the title of the council. David Carr had begun discussion on the issue. The motion was to add the word “SAFETY” to the existing title. The motion was to change the name of the council from “Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council” to Nebraska Prescribed Fire Safety Council”. This is to reflect the goal of safe and effective prescribed burning and be able to relate this more to the VFD’s and other Fire Professional as a primary role of this council. John Ortmann- moves John Ortmann brought up
Legislative Bill 105 Next
meeting tentatively June 7th- 1:00 pm – Central Platte NRD, Grand
Island, NE
February
2, 2007 January 10, 2007, Lexington Extension office 10 am NEXT MEETING IS MARCH 6TH AT 10 A.M. AT THE LEXINGTON EXTENSION SERVICE. Send your agenda items to David Carr and he will send out the agenda before this meeting. In attendance: Teri Edeal, Traci Bates, Steve Gramlich, Darrell Bliven, Lisa McMillan, Bill Carhart, Beth Hiatt, David Carr, Dana Larsen. Kent Aden emailed after the meeting stating his job description has changed and he will be too busy to continue to lead the PBTF as he has for 3 years and asked that at the March 6th meeting we elect a new president. The by laws do say elections will be held the first meeting each fall to elect Pres., Vice Pres., and Secretary. The Extension office in Lexington is the Treasurer until they don’t want to do it any more. THANKS KENT FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP AND INSIGHT YOU SHARED DURING YOUR TIME AS PRESIDENT. March 20 - Buffalo/Dawson Co - Elm Creek Community Building Lisa will ask Chuck about handouts he’ll want. Send Teri the addresses of the school sites so she can update the school posters. (after the meeting, through phone calls some schools are running 9-4 with registration at 8:30 so people can get chores done – some will leave early to check calves). Steve G and Bill C will do the advertising with Faith at the North Platte Extension office, trying to advertise in the Midwest Messenger, Fence Post, Nebraska Farmer, CPNRD Newsletter; do radio interviews and other avenues as they become available. We have quite a distance betweens schools again this year, so the usual media outlets may not be enough. Chuck Butterfield would like to talk about wildfires they had with an urban interface and how to prevent this in other built up locations such as suburbs and housing developments. This will be a more diverse talk and more urban audience and fire departments may be interested. Managing fire fuels and protection from approaching fires will be in his talk. Need to have the effect of fire on cedar trees, the size of trees affected, density and canopy and how it is interrelated. Put an emphasis on when fire is most effective. The mechanical control part of the schools will come from different businesses. Elm Creek will have a fellow from the east come out. Burwell will use Mostek from near Loup City and McCook could have someone local come. Lisa is getting info together on the Fire Marshall Officers coming to talk about liability and permits. Tom Gee will try to get brochures on chemical control to Darrell for distribution. PBTF will pay for Chuck B’s lodging, mileage and meals and we’ll do a stipend again. Lisa has been communicating with him. Bill Carhart may have him to a separate talk to acreage owners and will contact Chuck himself. Teri will update the SRM Reno poster with Shandy Bittle of NRCS. Ryan Kroemer of NRCS will help with a cedar density and burn location map for the poster. The poster will indicate prepared by NRCS. It will be 8’x4’ in size. We have to have an author on it, can’t just put PBTF Membership as authors. Teri’s name will appear as author. It would be good to have each agency represented in the membership’s logo on the poster, but not enough room. There is a place where they are named in general terms. Six other posters will be at the National SRM meeting in Reno, NV from around the nation. Teri will be hostess to the sign for 2 hours in the mornings of the meeting. The awards are given on the third day of the meeting so Teri will stay for that. TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES, TERI! Teri and her husband Brian will leave on Feb 9th for the meeting in Reno. St Paul and Osceola are doing schools next week. PBTF is listed as a sponsor of the Osceola meeting and what funds are left after expenses will be sent to the PBTF. David had talked to Kent about this arrangement. CPNRD would have funds available if the school would go in the red, David stated. (post meeting Alane Nelson said they had a little money left over as they paid for 16 more meals than showed up). The St Paul school will build a fund to purchase equipment for the newly formed Central Nebraska Prescribed Burn Association. This association includes Howard, Greeley, Sherman, Nance and Merrick counties. The group has filed for legal incorporation. David said they plan to run like PBTF in that they want folks to have demonstration experience. Some may need to help with other’s burns before the association comes to their land to help. Scott Willet, NRCS RC+D Coordinator in David City got enough interest, 30 people, to try a school in Saunders Co in Wahoo! It will probably be held at the NRD building in late March or April. The popularity and demand for prescribed fire to maintain the CRP contracts is fueling this fire. Tom Gee with Dow graciously is sponsoring half the meals for these meetings as well as the three in March. Thanks to Darrell for arranging this with Tom for the 10th year!!! March 26th is the NRCS advanced class. It is being funded with ’06 budget money. Reggie Blackwell and Chuck Stanley of Central Tech Center in Texas are the instructors. Several demos are lined up for the NRCS school, two by Burwell and 2 by North Platte. There is still room in the class for NRCS personnel, then it will be opened to partners. April 2-6, 2007 are the dates anticipated for at the NRCS burns. The financial report was handed out. Bruce was unable to attend. We have a current balance of $3999.82. Election of officers was discussed and will be held the fall of ’07 as stated in by-laws, so the current officers will serve until then with the exception of Kent as stated above. The signs for posting after a PBTF demonstration burn that was first addressed at the last meeting were discussed again. The signs should be placed on a visible road. The ‘step in’ kind of frames are $30. Need one of these for the Nebraska SRM Excellence award sign. Teri, are you getting that ordered? After much discussion on the signs for identifying PBTF demo burns, Dana moved to screen print 20 vinyl, 12x18 signs with our name and logo on them. 2nd by Traci, motion carried unanimously. The year would be left blank and PBTF will purchase stick on years to fill in as needed. Bill C will check with Condon House of Signs in North Platte for custom stick additions for the signs. Custom Craft Signs has done the self stick additions for signs, too. Lisa is contacting a Kearney business, too. The vertical signs will be able to be attached to a wooden or steel post. Signs should be posted near the pasture gate for visibility. Room will also be left on the bottom for our someday web site address. David will work on ordering 8 backpack liners, or what comes in a package, through CPNRD and PBTF will reimburse the NRD. David said a grant he had applied for won’t be announced till March so won’t know for a while if extra funds will be there to support the ’07 schools. CPNRD authorized a new program to have a burn crew available to conduct prescribed burns in the Central Platte NRD area. They have 7-8 people and are insured. They are S130-S190 trained. The minimum cost is $300 for 30 acres or less and 30-40 acres is $10/ac and above 40 acres is $5/ac. David will send Bill C a winterization check list. The check out form, charges assessed, length of rental and the deposit to be returned were discussed at length. The slip on unit’s maintenance cost as gone up. One party had the equipment for 13 days last spring and we were not prepared for allowing someone to keep the tool caches that long. So Traci made a motion to change the form to $150 for 2 days rental for the slip on unit and tool cache. The renter would get $50 back if everything is in working order and accounted for. If just the hand tools are used, rent will be $75 with $25 back when all is in working order and accounted for. Dana seconded the motion, passed unanimously. The web site was discussed again. Bill and Teri will look into the possibility and check prices from different sources. SRM is willing to put us on as a link as would the GLC, CPNRD, Nebraska NRCS and others such as other NRDs, NGPC, Nebraska USFW, etc. Marcia, I&E with CPNRD may be a source of help. Much of the info gathered for the SRM poster and the ETF Grant could be used. There is a company in Grand Island that charges $12/mo for maintenance, keeping updated will be our group’s responsibility to get info to the maintainer. There is a fee for the address, fee for the server/hard drive and hourly fee for the site development. The Extension Service in Lincoln did not want to take on our web site as a project. Meeting adjourned at 12:30. NEXT MEETING MARCH 6TH
AT THE LEXINGTON EXTENSION OFFICE Submitted by October 31, 2006 Attendance: Dave Carr Central Platte NRD, Dana Larsen NRCS,
Jim Rowell, Chris Helzer TNC, Bill Vodehnal NGPC, Roger Chesley NGLC, Tim
Tunnell PRHP, Mark Czaplewski CPNRD, Milt Moravek CPNRD, Charles Brooks Tri
Basin NRD, Keith Brus Pheasants Forever, Kent Pfeiffer NGPC, John Ortmann TNC,
Rich Bringelson LCRA Elections were held for Steering Committee Chair, Vice
Chair and Secretary as well as 3 other at large members. The Chair elect is David Carr, Vice Chair is Chris Helzer,
and Secretary is Tim Tunnell. The
term is two years. The three other members elect of the Steering Committee
are Dana Larsen, Bill Vodehnal, and Roger Chesley. Dave showed the Council a couple links including the
Wisconsin Prescribed Fire Council Liability web page: Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council web page for meeting notes
and photo gallery: http://www.cpnrd.org/Fire%20Council/index.htm The Council discussed the issue of 501 (c) 3 status and Dave and Milt reported on their discussion with an attorney regarding the issue. The status would provide some liability protection to members of the Council not directly involved with any negligent activity and would allow the Council to be eligible for certain grant funds. Attaining the status would require 1500-2500 dollars roughly for filing and attorney fees. It was mentioned that the Council could possibly utilize
the 501 (c) 3 status of a member group which would apply for grant funding. The Council discussed at length the need to continue
outreach by all members. Dave and
Milt are going to mail a packet to local fire chiefs and to keep working on the
other NRD’s. Other members
expressed that their outreach is ongoing as well. It was discussed that
outreach at Mutual Aid meetings would be a great tool. We discussed the need to ensure that actual numbers are used in our outreach to dispel any possible myths that fire is being over-used. Rich mentioned that the canopy on the Loess Canyons is covering 30 % of the landscape and that it is encroaching on at least 1% more each year. Showing an obvious need for fire to help keep up there. Rich mentioned that NPPD could be a possible partner for
fire, because prescribed burns can keep substantial damage from happening to the
power lines and poles. Dana and Roger talked about several events including an event in Reno and also the Nebraska Grazing Conference where there will be information given regarding the 1375 acre Pilcher prescribed burn that took place this year. This information will include economic data as a result of the burn. Dave mentioned that the Training committee needs to look at
S131 or a Prescribed Fire Planning course to be held this year. The
Operations Committee is going to get some things going when our membership
increases to include more groups and people. We discussed the need for a Government Relations committee of some sort and it was mentioned that maybe it’s too soon for the Council to look at this type of activity. We talked about how the current state law regarding range management burning has its problems in application right now and what could be done to make it better. We are fortunate to have the (only?) author of the law on hand as a representative to the Council, John Ortmann. We discussed looking at what other states are doing with regards to burning law to learn what we can about how their systems work. The meeting was adjourned and next meeting set for Thursday February 8, 2007 at the Central Platte NRD office in Grand Island at 1:00pm. There will be no Steering Committee meeting prior. September
27, 2006 Attendance: Dave Carr Central Platte NRD, Dana Larsen NRCS,
Jim Rowell Grand Island Fire Chief, Chris Helzer TNC, Bill Vodehnal NGPC, Joe D.
Hanson State Fire Marshal Training Division, Brice Krohn USFWS, Roger Chesley
NGLC, Tim Tunnell PRHP, Mark Czaplewski CPNRD, Milt Moravek CPNRD, Gordon
Warrick NGPC Meeting Notes: None of the representatives present could see a problem
with obtaining membership for their organization excepting the Fire Marshal
Training Division, which is participating but not seeking membership. It was decided that Milt and David will look into non
profit status and liability issues as they might pertain to the Council and that
they will report to the council on their findings so that section 4.5 of the
bylaws can be amended or stricken as appropriate and as desired by the Council. It was decided that certain members of the Council will
conduct outreach to see if more formal members can be obtained.
David will type a one page information sheet and Email this out to
everyone to help in this process, along with
the sheet they need to sign. The outreach efforts were discussed as follows: We discussed the Chadron fire and how it might or might not
affect prescribed fire efforts in the future.
It seems that the fuels reduction efforts might have saved some homes and
could be highlighted. Roger, and Dana talked about a land management program and how he is doing a project involving cedars and spurge. A site will be chosen to apply grazing, burning, and mechanical treatments. We also discussed a poster competition relating to outreach. Dana mentioned that a Pilcher burn display will be used at conferences in the future to show what the large fires can do. Jim Rowell mentioned that we could add these type of photos to the website. Dana mentioned that the NRCS is working on MOU’s for burning with other state and federal agencies so that help could be traded easily for burning. Other notes from Dana: Brice mentioned that the USFWS will be holding a S130
S190 in February in conjunction with UNK and are expecting 20-25 students.
The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 31, 2006, at 1:00 pm at
the Central Platte NRD in Grand Island. July
6,
2006 Yesterday evening there was a meeting that concluded in the successful formation of the Central Nebraska Prescribed Burn Association. The fire training in March started the discussion about the new association. There were over 45 in attendance in St. Paul for the association meeting. It appeared that more than half were area producers. Items discussed included burn association benefits and challenges, and the new Pheasants Forever Grassland Improvement Program. The burn association is just getting started but its likely to include the counties of Howard, Greeley, Sherman and Nance. It seems to me that Merrick should be another county that could easily be included. The ranchers were very interested in fire and there is a great history of fire in the area, as the Knopik family and others have burnt thousands of acres up there in recent years. Jim Knopik was there and stated that he thought the association would be good thing for several reasons. The next meeting of the burn association will be August 24 most likely at the St. Paul location again, but this is not for sure yet, Pete has to see if the Library will be available. I know that I look forward to helping with training and training burns to help get this association on its feet. This makes for the 4th official burning cooperative in the state, although there are a few other informal groups that also get alot of burning done. The other formal groups are: Prescribed Burn Taskforce (Custer, Buffalo, Dawson, Lincoln) Panhandle Prescribed Burn Taskforce Loess Canyon Rangeland Alliance (burn equipment). June 13, 2006 Attendance: Dave Carr Central Platte NRD, Dana Larsen NRCS, Jim Rowell Grand Island Fire Chief, Mark Feeny NGPC, Chris Helzer TNC, Bill Vodehnal NGPC, John Ortmann TNC, Joe D. Hanson State Fire Marshal Training Division, Brice Krohn USFWS, Keith Brus Pheasants Forever, Roger Chesley NGLC, Tim Tunnell PRHP, Michael Kelsey NE Cattlemen, Teri Edeal NRCS Meeting Notes: Dave reported on NRD fire program accomplishments and the Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council Website website modifications are to include: clarifying the Hastings Fire Weather link, RAWS weather station link, Creating a subpage for the Nebraska Law instead of making people hunt through all the other laws, Links to fire councils of other states. A discussion of burning and windows for burning
followed indcluding: The council discussed at length the mission statement and how it could be rewritten to be less overtly offensive to those skeptical about prescribed fire. The mission statement and membership principles were amended to the following statement: “The Council’s mission is to promote the safe, legal, and responsible use of prescribed fire as a natural resource management tool.” John pointed out that due to a lack of a hyphen, the
mission statement actually has double meaning. Without the hyphen it’s hard to
discern whether the statement is referring to a natural resource or to a natural
tool. The hyphen was left out
because the current trend and popular usage is without a hyphen.
Ambiguity and double meaning aside, it is an impressive mission statement
for its succinctness and lack of objectionable substance. The other issue with the draft bylaws is the “Limited Liability of Volunteers.” Dave stated that he would see if the NRD had a legal resource to look into this section and what the language should be. The Council discussed having Michael Kelsey approach Bill Lundy to discuss the Council and see if there would be an opportunity for a presentation regarding prescribed fire and the Council at the next Nebraska State Volunteer Association Conference in October. Dave stated that he would give his contact information for Bill Lundy to Michael. Joe stated that the firefighters do not have CEU’s or equivalents for currency that are spelled out by the state, those local authorities determine these requirements. Dana stated that the next SRM meeting might be a good opportunity for a training or presentation regarding fire and the Council. Tim stated that the NGLC mailings would be an opportunity for Council outreach if we could come up with a one-page write up. It was mentioned that the NE Cattlemen might have a training opportunity at the annual conference this year in Lincoln. Dave mentioned the possibility of creating a Council display in house by the NRD. Committees were discussed and three initial committees were formed They are listed below with current volunteers for each: Outreach: John
Ortmann and Dana Larsen (Council Objective 2) February 24, 2006 Attendance: Milt Moravek CPNRD, Dana Larsen NRCS, Jim
Rowell Grand Island Fire Chief, Mark Feeny NGPC, Chris Helzer TNC, Bill Vodehnal
NGPC, John Ortmann TNC, Joe Hanson State Fire Marshal Training Division., Rich
Bringelson LCRA Meeting Notes: Dana mentioned
that Craig Utter of the Cattlemen’s Resource Committee could be a good contact
for the council regarding landowner participation and viewpoint. It was discussed
that the council needs to meet to form committees and that one of those
committees should be working towards minimum standards that would apply to
prescribed fire practices. These
standards would define the council’s position on different aspects of using
prescribed fire. One task relating
to this is to come up with some kind of checklist and Dana volunteered to head
that effort and Dave Carr volunteered to help as needed. Another task for the council brought forth by Rich was to
see about helping the NRCS to obtain more training and equipment for prescribed
burning because this agency is the primary agency working with private
landowners and it seems that they do need some help with training and equipment
possibly. The
next meeting date was not determined, but those interested in coming to a next
meeting should look at June on their calendars. The approved bylaws are attached to this email.
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CALENDAR Red Card Class See more information on this meeting at the top of this page.
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